Skoda as Scores of whales, dolphins dead after Chathams stranding new police vehicles Pedalling professors help student relief
WELLINGTON: Police have chosen the Skoda Superb as their new frontline vehicle.
The move to a new vehicle was prompted by Holden owner General Motors announcing it was withdrawing Holden from the Australasian market.
Police said they received submissions for 27 vehicles from seven suppliers for the testing for a new primary response car.
Two Skoda Superb models stood out as ideal cars, and police said the first batch were expected to be on the road next April.
Patrol vehicles in the existing fleet would be replaced when they reached the end of their useful life, at a rate of around 400 per year.
Police have more than 2000 primary response vehicles in action.
Police will be using station wagons as they offer greater flexibility for deployment and were the preferred body type.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said the new vehicles would help reduce the police fleet’s carbon footprint.
‘‘When compared to our current fleet, CO2 emissions per kilometre could be reduced by up to 38.6% per vehicle, depending on what is being replaced,’’ he said.
Holden would still be able to service police vehicles for 10 years. — RNZ
CHRISTCHURCH: More than
100 pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins are dead after being stranded on a Chatham Islands beach.
The Department of Conservation was notified of the mass stranding on a remote Chatham Islands beach at noon on Sunday.
Ninetyseven whales and three dolphins died in the stranding, and 26 of the animals were alive but very weak.
Doc biodiversity ranger Jemma Welch said the 26 were euthanised due to rough sea conditions, and the almost certainty of the stranding attracting great white sharks to the area.
A further two whales had stranded on the beach when Doc staff visited the site on Monday morning, and these whales also had to be euthanised, she said.
The Hokotehi Moriori Trust and the Ngati Mutunga o Wharekauri Iwi Trust joined Doc staff on Sunday and performed a karakia to honour the spirit of the whales, which will be left to decompose naturally.
Commercial diver and photographer Sam Wild said the whales stranded at a northern beach on the main Chatham Island.
He said it was a horrific and emotional scene.
Locals had put out word of the stranding the day before, he said.
‘‘I mean the Chatham Islands
. . . is a pretty remote place, their beaches are pretty remote, there’s not a lot of people around them so when they were eventually found the radio call went out to a few people, because there’s so many divers around the island, myself included.’’
Mr Wild said the diving community was told to stay out of the water when there had been a whale stranding because the Chatham Islands had a population of great white sharks, which might come in to feed on the carcasses.
‘‘So [we] stayed out of the water and took the camera instead and yeah it was pretty sad to see.’’
The Doc website describes the Chatham Islands as a mass stranding ‘‘hot spot’’ for pilot whales, adding that the biggest recorded pilot whale stranding was when an estimated 1000 whales stranded in the Chatham Islands in 1918. — RNZ
THREE University of Otago professors have raised more than $7600 for the student relief fund by cycling 1400km from Dunedin to Nelson.
‘‘It’s a great way to see the country,’’ one of the trio, deputy vicechancellor, research and enterprise, Prof Richard Blaikie, said yesterday.
‘‘It’s what I call slowmotion tourism, as you travel under your own locomotion through the landscape.’’
A fellow professor, Prof David Lont, of accountancy and finance, had suggested raising funds for Putea Tautoko, the student relief fund, which was being done through a Givealittle page, until the end of this month.
Students had had a tough, stressful year and faced financial hardship because of Covid19 disruption.
The professors, including Prof Gerry Closs, of zoology, recently spent nine days on the road, cycling from Dunedin to Nelson via the West Coast, as part of a larger team of riders and support crew, mainly from Dunedin’s Phantoms social cycling group.
The professors are members of the group and also went on the group’s latest annual long ride.
Their ride tracked the spine of the Southern Alps, crossing five passes along the way.
After slogging over the Lewis Pass on the penultimate day, the final day was a shorter final run to Nelson — a mere 120km —
“We’re pleased to be here. Everyone’s a bit tired and there’s a few injuries and niggles picked up along the way,” Prof Blaikie said.
Most of the 17strong touring group do not work at the university.
One person who had intended to take part in the cycle trip broke a femur — but was now recovering well — in a cycling mishap three weeks before the start.
The most sobering moment came when a rider crashed into a ditch during a descent on the West Coast and had to be flown to hospital by rescue helicopter, having broken eight ribs and punctured a lung.
And another rider later collided with a wandering bull.
Both of the latter riders were recovering well, and, in the second case, the rider had since taken part in another cycling event.
“This is definitely a mamil group [middleaged men in lycra] but we’re on that boundary of being oapils,” Prof Blaikie said.
‘‘Oapils’’ referred to ‘‘oldage pensioners in lycra’’.
During the recent trip they had cycled ‘‘coast to coast to coast’’, twice, through some of the South Island’s most spectacular scenery.
“Arthurs Pass was the really hard day, where we had a blustery headwind going up some very steep climbs.
‘‘There was no persistent rain or horrendous conditions to deal with, which was great.”