August 2026 vehicle registrations rose 7.6 percent to 20,252 units and Chinese brands took 18.7 percent of new registrations. Rental fleets took 27.7 percent of new passenger sales.

Pet Refuge has hit capacity after 17 dogs arrived in a fortnight, with six more on a waitlist, and is asking pet lovers to fund extra boarding beds.

September is the busiest month in a New Zealand garden. What to sow, plant and harvest now, with timing for every region ...

Auckland Council has granted resource consent for a $58 million rebuild of the Waiwera hot springs north of Auckland, with 29 pools and an opening targeted for mid 2028.

Dame Whina Cooper fought a Hokianga drainage lease at 18 and at 79 walked at the head of the 1975 land march from Te Hāpua to Parliament.

Centrix says more than 2,900 New Zealand hospitality businesses stopped trading in the past year and 422 were liquidated, 3.3 times the average failure rate.

Ryan Fox has qualified automatically for the 2026 Presidents Cup International Team, the first New Zealander in the event since Danny Lee in 2015.

Parliament's Education and Workforce Committee has recommended the Modern Slavery Bill be passed, with ACT opposed. Nine sitting days remain before the House rises.

ANZ's August Business Outlook has business confidence at 53.7 and past activity up to 16.4, but firms still report fewer staff than a year ago and rising cost expectations.

Labour will guarantee a public health job for every New Zealand trained nurse at graduation and double the primary care recruitment subsidy, at a cost of $525 million a year.

Filled jobs rose 18,033 in the year to July 2026 but health, public administration and education supplied 87 percent of the gain. Stats NZ data explained.

All eight gold awards at The Big Sing 2026 finale in Christchurch went to Auckland school choirs, with a new national Pasifika award shared by Epsom Girls Grammar and Dilworth.