Organisers of the New Zealand Golf Open are “quietly optimistic” there will be an international field, of some description.Tournament director Michael Glading said the Government was prepared to allow international professionals…

Police have this afternoon released the name of a five-year-old boy who died at the water’s edge off Napier’s Marine Parade.He was Te Karauna Waihirere Manawa Tua Tahi o Te Ora Tamaiti Te Rangi Issac Jerricoh Warren-Whakamoe, 5,…

There are 101 Covid-19 cases in the community as Cabinet prepares to announce what colours the country will be in to welcome the new year.Cabinet will today consider case numbers, vaccination rates and the length of time the new…

There were tears and hugs aplenty when the first flight from New South Wales touched down on the Gold Coast this morning, ending a near five-month COVID-19 lockout.

Jetstar flight JQ400 landed shortly after 7am (AEDT), ending 141 days of separation for loved ones as the Queensland border reopened.

One passenger, Greg, praised the Queensland government for re-opening the border earlier as he caught up with his mother for the first time in more than two years.

LIVE UPDATES: Treasurer warns premiers not to 'get spooked' by Omicron

He said he was only in Queensland for a couple days, but he planned to make the most of it and see his family.

"We're going to have a Christmas dinner on Tuesday night," mum Leslie told Today.

Couple Tyrone and Emma have been doing a long-distance relationship before meeting on the Gold Coast – Emma's first time in Queensland.

She said she was "super excited" to begin exploring.

And another family has been reunited with their grandmother after nine months apart.

She said she was "so excited" to see her daughter and grandchildren.

"Oh my gosh, my beautiful daughter," the woman said as they hugged.

At Brisbane Airport, Paul was waiting for his wife of 40 years, who he hadn't seen in four months.

"My daughter had a baby in Melbourne and she went down to help, and then it went into long lockdown," he told Today.

It is the longest the couple has been apart during their marriage.

READ MORE: 'Oh my God': Tears as Today reporter reunites with family after a year

Jetstar pilot Guy Proctor said it was great to have flights coming back to Queensland.

"I think we're going to increase by almost three or four times this week the amount of flights into the Gold Coast, which is a really popular place for all our passengers, obviously," he told Today.

"We had a lot of people, pilots and ground crews, stood down over the last few years. It's good to have everybody back at this stage. We have a lot of new staff starting as well."

A second flight from Brisbane has also landed this morning, with passengers disembarking at Brisbane Airport.

READ MORE: Queensland's border opening just hours away: What you need to know

Tens of thousands are also expected to enter Queensland via road today, with police warning that people need to make sure they have met the necessary conditions.

Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said 23,500 applications for people entering the state from COVID-19 hotspots had been processed so far.

"Pleasingly this morning we have not had long delays," she said.

However, she said a number of entrants to the state had not been prepared with their pass when trying to cross the border by road.

"Make sure you've got the right pass."

People coming in still need to be fully vaccinated and to have returned a negative PCR COVID-19 test within 72 hours prior to entry.

Police Chief Superintendent Rhys Wildman also said people needed to make sure they had filled out the correct pass.

"It is important because we've had a number of drivers try to come across with what's called a general pass, a G Pass, and the particular pass required is a general a general vaccine pass, which is a GV Pass," he told Today.

"If people coming into Queensland don't have the correct pass, they get turned around."

Speaking to 9News this morning, NSW residents and returning Queenslanders shared what it meant to them for the borders to at last re-open.

"The first week was the hardest, I think, then after that you got used to being a nomad," one man said.

Queensland residents have been stuck in NSW, unable to return home, with many forced to camp or sleep in their cars for months.

"It's been terrible what we've had to go through. So, yeah, it's good to be back," one said.

https://twitter.com/miaglover_9/status/1470091867005984768

Nine reporter Davina Smith was among the first cohort to make for the border, getting up at 1am to lodge a border pass application.

"We sort of got towards the border, about two kilometres short of the border, just before 4am. That's when we hit traffic. It it was bumper to bumper," she said.

"About 500 metres shy of the checkpoint, that's where they merged you into one-lane. That's what's slowing down the process."

Smith said her relatives in Queensland had yet to meet her six-month-old new child, while her five-year-old was "bursting" to see their grandparents.

https://twitter.com/miaglover_9/status/1470103235830554627

"Right now, I could burst into tears, I'm just so relieved," she said.

"But we are here, we are moving, and we will be with family in about an hour's time which will be a better wake up call."

Flights are also set to land in Brisbane from Sydney and Melbourne this morning, with rising excitement at the airport.

Steve Kemp, who had been months to get into Queensland to see his family, hoped to be one of the first back in.

"I've missed out on my daughter's wedding, seven of my grandkids birthdays, Father's Day," he said.

Neville Hanson has not been allowed to go home to Queensland despite being critically ill.

Barbara Hanson blamed Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for the harsh rules that locked people out.

"I'd like to put Annastacia in a caravan, and park her out here and say right you can't get back to your home now," she said, calling the experience "traumatic and soul destroying".

To get into Queensland from a hotspot such as NSW or Victoria, you need proof of vaccination, a negative test within 72 hours and an entry pass, which is available online.

There were fears the system would crash amid the rush.

READ MORE: Queensland holds firm on 14-day quarantine for international arrivals

"Tonight's gonna be pandemonium. We're really hoping the system isn't going to crash," said Frank Such, who was trying to travel.

However, so far, the site appears to be keeping up under the pressure.

Queensland police would prefer passes on the dashboard but for people keen to cross in the early hours that might prove impossible.

They have said showing it on a phone will be enough.

Not long after the border opened, they tweeted a message for motorists to have their passes ready to prevent to officers, to prevent further delays.

The death of a well-known Far North woman who fell into Mangonui Harbour from an unfenced section of road was caused by heart disease and not the fall itself, a coroner has found. Anthea Janet Goodwin, who was 89, died on the evening…

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency is asking motorists to drive to the conditions as parts of the country are expected to be battered by heavy rain over the next few days.Severe weather warnings have been issued for parts of the country,…

Today Show reporter Christine Ahern has cried tears of joy after reuniting with her family in Queensland after not seeing them for more than a year.

The reporter was shocked after she realised her parents, dad Mike and mum Andrea, had turned up to surprise her at Brisbane Airport, along with her sister, niece and nephews.

Ahern took the first flight from Melbourne to Brisbane this morning, landing in the sunshine state about 9.30am.

READ MORE: Tears and cheers as first flights from NSW land in Queensland

The Today Show captured Ahern walking out of the plane and into arrivals for the long-awaited reunion, her voice breaking as she shed a few tears.

"I am so excited," she said.

"I'm originally from Queensland. Mum and dad – they are in the Sunshine Coast.

"I will see them in a couple of days. But I have a couple of sisters in Brisbane.

"I haven't cried since primary school, but I haven't seen them in more than a year.

"It has been a long year … hopefully they are as excited to see me as I am excited to see them."

Ahern and her family cried tears of joy when they finally reunited and were able to hug this morning.

READ MORE: Coronavirus cases confirmed among NSW nightclub patrons

But her reaction when she saw her parents was priceless.

"Oh my God, mum and dad," she said.

"Oh my God."

Today show hosts David Campbell and Sylvia Jeffries said Ahern had no idea her parents were going to turn up at the airport today.

"I think the surprise worked," Jeffries said.

READ MORE: Queensland holds firm on 14-day quarantine for international arrivals

Ahern said it had been "so long" since she had seen her "beautiful parents".

"These are just some of the best parents you could hope for," she said.

"It has been a long, hard time in Victoria but I have got the most wonderful family and they have seen me through and this moment is just … I can't believe you are here.

"Who organised this? This is so amazing."

Family time is what Ahern missed the most throughout lockdowns and being separated by border closures.

"I have lived in Melbourne for many years now, but I have always felt connected because I could always jump on a plane," she said.

"But I haven't been able to do that for so long and it has just been so hard and to see them here now, yes, it is like a dream come true.

"This family means the world to me.

"Best work morning ever."

When Katie Posten walked outside on Saturday morning to her car parked in her driveway, she saw something that looked like a note or receipt stuck to the windshield.

She grabbed it and saw it was a black and white photo of a woman in a striped sundress and headscarf holding a little boy in her lap.

On the back, written in cursive, it said, “Gertie Swatzell & J.D. Swatzell 1942."

READ MORE: Over 100 feared dead after tornadoes tear through US states

A few hours later, Ms Posten would discover that the photo had made quite a journey – almost 210 kilometres on the back of monstrous winds.

Ms Posten had been tracking the tornadoes that hit the middle of the US Friday night, killing dozens of people.

They came close to where she lives in New Albany, Indiana, across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky.

So she figured it must be debris from someone's damaged home.

“Seeing the date, I realised that was likely from a home hit by a tornado. How else is it going to be there?" Ms Posten said.

“It’s not a receipt. It’s well-kept photo."

So, doing what any 21st century person would do, she posted an image of the photo on Facebook and Twitter and asked for help in finding its owners.

She said she was hoping someone on social media would have a connection to the photo or share it with someone who had a connection.

Sure enough, that's what happened.

“A lot of people shared it on Facebook. Someone came across it who is friends with a man with the same last name, and they tagged him,” said Ms Posten, 30, who works for a tech company.

That man was Cole Swatzell, who commented that the photo belonged to family members in Dawson Springs, Kentucky, almost 210 kilometres away from New Albany, as the crow flies, and 269 kilometres away by car.

In Dawson Springs — a town of about 2700 people 97 kilometres east of Paducah — homes were levelled, trees were splintered and search and rescue teams continued to scour the community for any survivors.

Dozens of people across five states were killed.

The fact that the photo travelled almost 210 kilometres is “unusual but not that unusual,” said John Snow, a meteorology professor at the University of Oklahoma.

In one documented case from the 1920s, paper debris travelled 370 kilometres from the Missouri Bootheel into southern Illinois.

The paper debris rides winds, sometimes reaching heights of 9100 to 12,100 metres above the ground, he said.

“It gets swirled up,” Professor Snow said.

“The storm dissipates and then everything flutters down to the ground.”

Ms Posten plans to return the photo to the Swatzell family sometime this week.

“It’s really remarkable, definitely one of those things, given all that has happened, that makes you consider how valuable things are — memories, family heirlooms, and those kinds of things,” Ms Posten said.

“It shows you the power of social media for good. It was encouraging that immediately there were tons of replies from people, looking up ancestry records, and saying ‘I know someone who knows someone and I’d like to help.’”

READ MORE: Before and after photos show devastation of US tornado outbreak

Over 100 people are feared dead after a series of tornadoes ripped through several states in the US Midwest and South and transformed homes and businesses into piles of rubble late Friday into Saturday.

In Kentucky alone, the death toll is at least 80 people and is going to exceed 100, Governor Andy Beshear said today – making it the deadliest tornado event in the state's history.

"I know people can see the visuals, but that goes on for 12 blocks or more in some of these places. And it's going to take us time," he said.

READ MORE: Tears and cheers as first flight from NSW lands on Gold Coast

LIVE UPDATES: Treasurer warns premiers not to 'get spooked' by Omicron

"You think you would go door-to-door to check on people and see if they're okay. There are no doors.

"The question is, is somebody in the rubble of thousands upon thousands of structures? I mean, it is devastating," he added.

Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," Mr Beshear confirmed a three-year-old in Graves County and a five-year-old in Muhlenberg County were among the dead.

Arkansas officials have reported two weather-related deaths; Tennessee has confirmed four; Illinois has reported six; and Missouri two.

Kentucky has not released an official death toll.

Across the region, destroyed buildings, downed power lines and wrecked vehicles lined the streets in hard-hit areas, making it tougher for rescuers trying to reach communities left with no working phone or power lines.

READ MORE: Before and after photos show devastation of US tornado outbreak

More than 50,000 customers in Kentucky were without power as of Sunday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.US.

Tornadoes or strong winds collapsed an occupied candle factory in Kentucky, an Amazon warehouse in western Illinois, and a nursing home in Arkansas, killing people in each community and leaving responders scrambling to rescue others.

More than 30 tornadoes were reported in six states.

Meteorologists said a stretch of more than 400 kilometres from Arkansas to Kentucky might have been hit by one violent, long-track twister.

According Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell, the severe storms are the "new normal" in an era of climate change.

"The effects we are seeing of climate change are the crisis of our generation," Ms Criswell said.

"We're taking a lot of efforts at FEMA to work with communities to help reduce the impacts that we're seeing from these severe weather events and help to develop systemwide projects that can help protect communities."

Despite her assertion, scientific research on climate change's influence on tornadoes is not as robust as for other types of extreme weather like droughts, floods and even hurricanes.

The short and small scale of tornadoes, along with an extremely spotty and unreliable historical record for them, makes assessing their relationships to long-term, human-caused climate change very difficult.

READ MORE: Queensland holds firm on 14-day quarantine for international arrivals

Candle factory collapse in Kentucky

In Mayfield, Kentucky, a city of around 10,000 people, a candle factory collapsed into a massive pile of debris, and rescuers used their hands and machines to dig through the destruction.

"There's at least 15 feet (4.5 metres) of metal with cars on top of it, barrels of corrosive chemicals that are there. It will be a miracle if anybody else is found alive in it," Mr Beshear said.

"Downtown is completely devastated."

Troy Propes, CEO of the company that owns the candle factory, said he believed workers in the factory followed the proper tornado safety protocols.

"Our factory was built as a manufacturing facility and the concrete walls and the steel frame and the structure," he said.

"You would have thought it would have been one of the safest places but ironically, as you can see with this devastation, there wasn't anything safe about this storm."

"I think hindsight is always an incredible lens to look through but I think everybody made the best decisions and the right decisions with the information that they had," he added.

Some family members are still searching for relatives who worked at the candle factory.

Paige Tingle, who was looking for her mother-in-law, Jill Monroe, said time is of the essence.

The last time the family spoke with her, she was in the bathroom in the safe shelter area," Ms Tingle said on Saturday.

"She (Monroe) has lung problems, she has heart problems," Tingle said. "We've got to get her."

The family checked local hospitals but they haven't found her.

Calls to her phone have gone unanswered.

Ivy Williams was at the Mayfield site on Saturday looking for his wife of 30-plus years, Janine Williams, who was at the factory.

"I hope she's somewhere safe," Ms Williams said, through tears.

"Please call me … I'm looking for you, baby."

He last heard from her before the tornado hit, and was shocked to find the building completely levelled when he arrived at the scene.

First responders have pulled people out of the rubble — some of them alive, storm chaser Michael Gordon said from the scene.

"It's kind of hard to talk about. … They're digging in that rubble by hand right now," Mr Gordon said.

Power outages and road-blocking debris add to misery

Mr Beshear visited some of the affected areas to assess the damage.

In his father's hometown of Dawson Springs, which has a population of about 2700, some remain unaccounted for.

"One block from my grandparent's house, there's no house standing and we don't know where all those people are," Mr Beshear said.

The state has deployed the National Guard to conduct searches, clear debris from roadways, and take generators to help power shelters and hospitals.

The governor urged people in affected communities that still have power to stay off the roads.

"Let our first responders get to everybody. Don't go to these areas to see it. We need to make sure those who do this work can do it at the fastest possible speed," he said.

Kentucky State Police Lt. Dean Patterson said the destruction is unlike anything he's seen before.

And the rescue and recovery effort will come with challenges.

"It's a very thorough and slow process, because you have to be careful when you are dealing with so much debris, and so many unknowns. One wrong move and you could actually cause more damage, so it's a slow, methodical process."

READ MORE: Six killed in US Amazon warehouse

A hospital in Paducah, Kentucky, around 43 kilometres north of Mayfield, has been treating tornado victims.

A majority of them had chemical burns, long bone injuries and crush injuries, Mercy Health Lourdes Hospital spokesperson Nanette Bentley said.

National Weather Service Chief Meteorologist John Gordon told a news conference in Kentucky that the tornado event was a "worst-case scenario."

"Warm air in the cold season, middle of the night – this sickens me to see what has happened," he said.

"Look at the pictures on your screens. Homes, totally impaled, two-by-fours through cars, eighteen-wheelers thrown nine metres moved in the northwesterly direction – that takes a lot of force."

A NSW resident has become the first person in the country to taken to hospital with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in Australia.

The person is the first to be admitted to hospital with the new strain, thought to be highly infectious.

The state recorded 485 new cases of coronavirus in the past day, including 10 new cases of the strain.

NSW Health said in an update more cases of the variant were expected as results of genomic testing are confirmed.

There are now 55 Omnicron cases in the state.

READ MORE: Australia's COVID-19 booster shots brought forward

https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1469789123682529281

Two people died with COVID-19 overnight, including an unvaccinated man in his 70s from Sydney's inner-west, at Concord Hospital.

Another unvaccinated man in his 80s from south-eastern Sydney died at Sutherland Hospital.

A total of 156 people are in hospital, including 23 in ICU, in the state.

From Wednesday, December 15 a new raft of coronavirus restrictions will ease, with the unvaccinated allowed to enter pubs and cafes and other hospitality venues and shops.

Infectious Diseases Specialist Sanjaya Senanayake told Weekend Today cases will likely increase with the new freedoms.

"It is quite possible and quite likely that we will see a further increase with the unvaccinated being able to mix in those venues," he said.

"However, New South Wales is very well vaccinated so hopefully we should be able to contain those increasing cases."

The state's rise in cases come after NSW Health eased concerns Wednesday night's AACTA Awards were a potential superspreader event.

The event is being investigated as a "low-risk" exposure site after a food and beverage worker tested positive to the virus.

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory has recorded four new cases of COVID-19 and a mask mandate has been introduced to help curb the spread of the virus.

Certain communities in the Katherine region will be required to wear masks indoors when social distancing is not possible for 72 hours, starting from 2pm local time today.

The four new cases include a man in his 60s, who is not linked to the current Katherine East cluster, a four-year-old child who was in the Centre of National Resilience at Howard Springs for their entire infectious period, as well as a 15-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl from the Katherine East cluster.

The outbreak has now grown to 71 infections.

Health Minister Natasha Fyles said health authorities anticipated more positive cases over the coming days.

"Territorians should be prepared for more cases coming out of that Katherine East situation," she said.

"Elimination is not possible, it's not an option for the Territory."

More than 2030 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours.

Victoria

Victoria has recorded 1069 new cases of COVID-19 overnight and two additional deaths with the virus.

Currently there are 310 Victorians hospitalised with COVID-19 and almost 11,400 active cases being managed in the state.

https://twitter.com/VicGovDH/status/1469789133182685185

There are 74 people being treated in ICU wards, 37 of whom are on ventilators.

Victoria now boasts a full two-dose vaccination rate of people aged over 12 of 92 per cent.

South Australia

There were 10 new cases of COVID-19 detected in South Australia today, with six being acquired locally, one infection from interstate and three under investigation.

The cases include two children, a teenager, four men aged between 20 and 50 and three women aged between 20 and 70.

A woman in her 50s and two men in their 30s remain in the Royal Adelaide Hospital in a stable condition with COVID-19.

The Norwood cluster sits at 33 cases.

Queensland and Australian Capital Territory

Both the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland have each recorded one new COVID-19 case.

https://twitter.com/qldhealth/status/1469823441528188929

It comes hours before the Sunshine State opens its borders to all Australians.

Queensland's case was acquired overseas with the person in hotel quarantine.

Vaccination rates have climbed to 81 per cent.

In the ACT 98.2 per cent of people aged 12 and over are double vaccinated.