Stories making headlines across New Zealand at noon include the Department of Conservation chopping down a tree that stood for half a millennium and a first for drunken revellers at the Mission Concert.
The Department of Conservation has apparently chopped down a 500-year-old kahikatea tree so it could extend a nearby tramping hut.
For the first time in "many years" St John Ambulance officers and support crews have not had to attend to comatose people at the Barry Gibb Mission Concert.
A prominent scientist says rotting, putrid algae on Waipu Cove beach needs to be cleaned up before it wipes out local beach-dwelling marine life.
While the ash spewing from White Island has slowly eased, scientists will monitor activity next week before making a decision on downgrading the alert.
