Stories making headlines across New Zealand at noon today include hobbits, fracking, flames shooting from Marsden Point, a fanatical Billy Connolly fan, Hamilton people being encouraged to walk around in hairy feet and daring daylight raids on gnomes.
If you notice large scary flames shooting from the Marsden Pt Oil Refinery from next week there's no need to be panic as its part of planned maintenance.
Never mind the All Black's Rugby World Cup win. Tourism guru George Hickton says Bilbo Baggins and his gang of dwarves will draw more people to New Zealand than the rugby win ever could. He told a meeting of tourism figures in Hamilton they need to "put on hairy feet."
Speaking of Hobbits, Masterton man Mal Harley was so impressed with his chance meeting with Billy Connolly he had the comedian's autograph on his arm made permanent by getting it tattooed. Connolly was hanging out with Stephen Fry at Sir Peter Jackson's Masterton estate for the long weekend. Meanwhile in the Wairarapa, musician Stefan Brown's album "The Angelic Way" has proved a surprise hit in Norway.
A large pod of dolphins spotted off the Tauranga coast could mean that more sea mammals are returning to the Bay, after fleeing to avoid the Rena oil spill.
The man who died when his truck plunged down a steep bank off the highway in the Kaimai Ranges has been named as Athol Ian Bree, 61, of Te Awamutu. A poll asks which are the most dangerous roads in the Bay of Plenty.
