Far North news in brief: Rubbish barge, missing fisher and Customs checks

Circus Kumarani performers Lisa Lu, Savanah Erdos and Tiree Gilroy show off their skills. Photo / NZME

Customs vigilance

Customs is urging port and marina workers, cruise passengers, boaties and coastal communities in Northland to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity along our maritime border. With over 15,000km of coastline and an expected 550–600 international small craft arrivals this season, Customs will maintain maritime surveillance and patrols throughout summer. Officers are also preparing to welcome about 180,000 cruise passengers visiting our shores this season. In 2024/2025, Customs seized more than 2.8 tonnes and 787 litres of illicit drugs and prohibited goods. In 2016, 500kg of methamphetamine was landed on Ninety Mile Beach.

Circus festival

Northlanders won’t need to run away to join the circus, with Circus Kumarani hosting a three-day festival packed with workshops so people can learn all the tricks of the trade. Circus Kumarani’s 19th Northland Circus Festival will be held at the Mangakahia Sports Complex from January 9-11, with an exciting line-up of workshops, music, live art and circus shows for all ages and abilities. It promises to be fun for the whole family with amazing circus, fire and glow shows, workshops for all ages and abilities, a magical marketplace and live music and art. Participants will get to show off their new skills at night shows each day. For more details, go to www.circuskumarani.co.nz.

Swim safe

Northland Regional Council will once again use the online Safeswim platform to deliver water quality results for popular beach and freshwater swim spots over summer. Safeswim gives you real-time updates on conditions at dozens of popular swimming spots across Te Tai Tokerau. It also offers a three-day forecast covering water quality, tides, weather and whether lifeguards are on duty and it’s now available as an app, so you can download and decide with Safeswim this summer. The water quality monitoring Northland Regional Council undertakes year-round contributes to the data that Safeswim uses to provide water quality predictions. This means you can check with Safeswim whether there’s any risk from swimming at your favourite swim spot.

Northland at bottom

Northland has slumped to the bottom spot on ASB’s Regional Economic Scoreboard, which ranks New Zealand’s 16 regions each quarter. Te Tai Tokerau ranked poorly in last week’s rankings due to a muted recovery compared with the rest of the country, including employment dropping 4.4% in the year to September 31. Construction was down 28% and while retail sales were up 2.2%, this was less than the national average of 4.6%. The ASB economists said Northland’s labour market appears to have stablised, with the region experiencing a turning point, along with the rest of the country.