NZ at Noon: Apple Maps, K2, What Shakeout?

According to the new Apple Maps application, you can fly out of Dunedin from the Octagon in the centre of the city. File photo / AP

Stories making headlines across New Zealand at noon include Apple Maps relocating Dunedin international airport, growing concern over mental effect of synthetic cannabis and some New Zealanders apparently completely ignored the big shakeout this morning.

According to Apple Maps, planes leaving Dunedin International Airport should be taking off from the Octagon.

Concern is growing concern about the psychological effects of a new synthetic cannabis product called K2.

Earthquake drill? What earthquake drill?

Therapeutic services including massage, reiki, colour therapy, traditional Maori healing and prayer with the hospital chaplain are being dropped at Wanganui Hospital.

Hayden Flay said "we must eradicate all white people" before pointing a rifle at a Katikati policewoman.

As a 31-year-old mother was shoplifting cheese and cream from a service station her 10-year-old daughter filled her jacket pockets with chocolate bars.

A man was allegedly dragged from a car and beaten at Totara North.

Outspoken Far North GP Lance O'Sullivan says he has had many patients as desperate as hunger striker Sam Kuha.

Te Arawa's latest national manu korero champion hails from a small, lakefront wharekura where all the students speak te reo.

Rotorua Mitre 10 Mega store has 60 job vacancies.

Con artists from overseas are sending "phishing" emails to Trade Me users, pretending they are from the online auction site and asking for personal details.

Meanwhile a tiny King Country town could go off the national grid because of crippling lines charges for power.

Over is Gisborne, some people are getting a little, others are getting a lot and almost everybody wants their fix.

The Napier City Council has unveiled bold plans to develop Marine Parade.

Meanwhile Hawke's Bay intellectuals can apparently rejoice.

Hawke's Bay's suicide figures have prompted a Napier man to ask for changes to the Privacy Act.

Ray Allsworth, of Ray's Barbershop in Kuripuni, decided to stop smoking about a year ago.

Ron Richdale, of Richdale Fire and Security, says claims made on the TV programme Fair Go about fire extinguishers is nothing more than an advertisement for a fire-protection company.

The costumes are under wraps until Waverley Primary School's first show of the Hansel and Gretel musical at 6.30 tonight.

Meanwhile the top of D Block at Whanganui UCOL was demolished yesterday.

Many of the 6000 businesses that occupied the city's central business district before the earthquakes are apparently unlikely to ever return.

It is disappointment and delight, heartbreak and happiness for Mid Canterbury's New Zealand's Got Talent contestants.

Rescuers have praised the quick actions of a mother, who they say saved her young daughter from more serious injury.

After being told not to attend by their boss, two University of Otago staff members pulled out of a presentation campaigning for an end of the university's use of lignite coal.

Meanwhile 300 ewes have been swiped from a farm in Kurow.

Top trending topics on Twitter in NZ at noon were: #shakeout, #MyExTaughtMe, #QuestionsIHateBeingAsked, GCSB, Myspace, New Zealand, Dotcom, #ReeceSleepoverVideo, #FirstSleepoverWithReece and #SmallzyAskHarry.

- Herald online