NZ@Noon: Royal letter thanks kids

Some stories that are that are making headlines across our regions today include: Primary school children in the Bay of Plenty receive a royal letter, visitors to the Bay of Plenty encounter a pod of orca, and a 15-year-old girl is happy the man who took her beloved horse for a joy-ride through Napier has been caught.

Students of Otumoetai Primary's Room 20 got their hands on a touch of royalty when they received a letter from Buckingham Palace.

Passengers on a Hole in the Rock cruise yesterday were joined by a pod of orca, including this large male and two young. The third orca from the left is munching on a stingray. Photo/Lawrence Hamilton

A group of visitors to the Bay of Islands will go home with a travel tale worth bragging about after a close encounter with a pod of orca.

A girl whose pet horse was stolen and ridden through the streets of Napier, leading to the animal becoming disabled, is "over the moon" after learning the man responsible has been caught.

Rotorua's Fire & Ice Festival is returning for a third year and this time there's no Luminite but instead a fire walk and polar plunge.

And, if you thought you saw a giraffe on the back of a truck travelling from Greytown to Martinborough this week, you weren't mistaken.

Finally, thanks to Wanganui's Bushy Park, a noisy red-and-black native bird is about to be returned to Taranaki - after a 150-year absence.