The Northpower WildKiwi is at Whangārei Heads on Saturday with hundreds taking part. The Wild Kiwi Multisport is for teams or individuals (from 14 years and up) and comprises a 10km sea kayak, 25km mountain bike ride and 14km run. Run/walk events include 8km, 15km and half-marathon (21km) options.
Northlander Mel Leahy likes the idea of a challenge and has been driving good-natured banter between Whangārei Heads and Parua Bay Primary schools. This year will see the two schools compete for a new trophy. The inaugural school competition is open to all students, past students, teachers and parents, with total points for each school calculated by adding up the best 10 individual scores on Saturday.
Bush rescue
Two people were rescued by the Land Search and Rescue team after getting lost on an afternoon bush walk in Mangamuka. Police said a grandmother and her granddaughter had set out at 4.30pm last Sunday when, after three hours of walking, they realised they were lost and called for help. Constable Sam Davidson said the pair had no phone coverage and no food or water. But close to midnight, the LandSAR team were able to establish voice contact with the duo and rescue them. The pair had minor cuts and bruises. Davidson said the incident was a timely reminder for people to prepare and be ready for an unexpected situation and to have the ability to navigate if necessary.
New mast for AM radio
Northland AM radio listeners will still be able to listen to their favourite stations next week, despite the installation of a new mast causing a four-day loss of signal.
From just after 9am on Monday, a new mast is being installed at the Radio NZ-owned site at Otaika, Whangārei, which means there will be a four-day outage that impacts some of the AM radio frequencies in Northland, including RNZ National.
It also includes Newstalk ZB, which currently operates on 1026AM and Gold Sport, on 729AM, but for the four days Newstalk ZB will be switched to to 0900AM, which is a frequency currently used by Coast. However, people can tune in to their favourite AM stations via iHeartRadio. The previous government gave $1.48 million to fund the repair and replacement of transmission masts in Northland to ensure AM radio remained operational in the region.
The 62-metre Otaika mast, which services from Wellsford, north of Auckland to Whangārei is the second of two masts to be replaced, with a mast in Kaitāia replaced last month.
Riverbank repairs
The partial collapse of riverbank along the Waitangi River will be repaired over four to six weeks, with work due to start mid-March. During severe weather events in 2022 and 2023, including Cyclone Gabrielle, a section of the riverbank at the Paihia Water Treatment Plant was damaged, Far North District Council said. Repair works will include rebuilding the riverbank protection structures as well as improving resilience of the treatment plant’s water intake, buildings and other structures. The council said its ability to provide treated water to Paihia, Haruru and Ōpua could be jeopardised without these repairs. Heavy machinery will be on site at the water treatment plant.
