Mt Ruapehu has been moved to volcanic alert level 2 following rising temperatures at its crater lake. The lake undergoes heating and cooling cycles over a period of months. A new heating cycle has started with temperatures reaching…

There are 2267 new cases of Covid-19 in Canterbury today and 191 in South Canterbury.Nine Covid-related deaths have also been reported in New Zealand on Monday, including a person in their 20s.There are 14,463 new community cases…

Ramraidstill.JPG A ram raider struggles with the internal security fence, which kept two thieves out of the main section of Stirling Sports. A Napier retail store asked for the public’s help after it was smashed into by ram raiders…

International flights into Sydney are steadily ramping up but passengers numbers are still massively depressed compared to pre-pandemic levels.

In comparison to February 2019, when Australian tourism was flying high, international passenger numbers in February this year are down a whopping 82 per cent.

Sydney Airport boss Geoff Culbert said "a two-speed recovery" was emerging between between domestic and international passengers.

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Domestic passengers are almost back to 50 per cent of pre-COVID levels and "growing strongly", compared to international numbers which are edging up but still below 20 per cent.

Despite the heavy hit to international passenger numbers, so crucial to Australia's battered tourism industry, promising green shoots of recovery are evident.

Over the past 12 months, international passenger numbers into Sydney airport have risen 700 per cent, up from 28,000 passengers in February 2021 to 230,000 last month.

In February 2019, 1.3 million international passengers moved through the terminal.

The data reflects just how long it will take for the tourism industry to bounce back, even though most restrictions have lifted in Australia and many countries around the world.

Since Australia slammed its borders shut, the tourism sector has been hemorrhaging an estimated $4 billion every month.

Mr Culbert said international airlines are slowly beginning to make more flights into Australia.

"By the end of this March we will have 12 of the 21 international airlines who stopped flying to Sydney during the pandemic back flying regular services," he said.

"The airlines who aren't yet back are still maintaining staff and offices here which gives us confidence they intend to return."

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Despite Australia's borders being open to international travellers for some months, tough COVID-19 restrictions in New Zealand and China have stopped tourists from Australia's two biggest inbound markets from visiting.

Before the pandemic hit, tourists from China accounted for almost a third of all travellers into Australia and they were by far the biggest spenders, generously opening their wallets at cities and tourist hot spots from coast-to-coast.

In 2019, 1.4 million Chinese tourists spent a whopping $12.2 billion – more than one quarter of the entire international tourism spend – according to data provided to 9news.com.au by Australia's peak tourism body, the Tourism and Transport Forum.

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That huge Chinese spend has fallen off a cliff, plunging 99.4 per cent to just $76 million in 2021, TFF figures showed.

Tourism was Australia's fifth most valuable export pre-pandemic, according to the Australian Trade and Investment Commission.

An amateur fossil hunter hopes he has pieced together a type of sea creature never before found in Taranaki, on New Zealand's North Island.

But experts think the rocks collected in rugged bush are more likely to hold bits of a prehistoric whale – a no less impressive find.

Over 15 years, Glen Wilson has gathered 14 fragments of a massive fossilised skull, making his latest find earlier this month.

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He thinks they could be the remains of a mosasaur, a type of aquatic reptile resembling a crocodile that lived about 70 million years ago.

Four of the rocks, roughly 1.3 metres wide in total, and about the same in length, hold fragments of what Mr Wilson believes is the predator's massive skull.

He estimates the skull would have been two metres long and more than 1.5 metres wide.

"I haven't heard of a skull this big being found in New Zealand," he said.

Mr Wilson has been in touch with Te Papa Museum in Wellington, and it was suggested that he had found an example of a fossilised baleen, or toothless, whale.

These take their name from the baleen plates in their mouths, which they use to filter krill, plankton and small fish.

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But Mr Wilson is certain he can see a tooth in one of the rocks, and based on his own research he believes he is looking at a type of mosasaur.

"I am hoping it's a new species," he said.

Fossils of mosasaurs have been unearthed in New Zealand since the mid-1800s, but they are not common.

The University of Otago's website states one of the most complete mosasaur skulls, from a creature about five metres long, was discovered in the Waipara area of North Canterbury in 2004.

Examples as long as 15 metres, about the length of a bus, have been found in other parts of the world.

Mr Wilson would not give the exact location of the north Taranaki fossil site, but said he visited every year to find new pieces.

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"It's a massive area I have to search," he said. "There are two or three thousand rocks.

"I've sort of been back up over the years. There's a bit here and a bit there, with some covered up by other rocks.

"I have had all family members and a few strong friends help me, which was no mean feat as the rocks are down a steep bluff."

In 2017, Mr Wilson spoke to Stuff about his ongoing finds. At the time he also thought he may have found a whale.

But since collecting more pieces his opinion has changed.

Te Papa spokesperson Kate Camp confirmed Mr Wilson had been in touch about the find, but said no next steps were in place at the moment.

If Mr Wilson is correct, it would not be the first time that Taranaki fossils have changed scientific understanding.

In 2020, John Buchanan-Brown, Karl Raubenheimer, David Allen and Alistair Johnson were credited with discovering a new species of monk seal, Eomonachus belegaerensis, in South Taranaki.

Previously it was thought monk seals evolved in the Northern Hemisphere, but their finds, between 2009-2016, showed seals moved up from the Southern Hemisphere.

Last year, Mr Buchanan-Brown, a Stratford High School science teacher, was credited with discovering a new species of petrel.

He had found the remains, dating back 3.4 million years, embedded in rock that had fallen off a cliff face on a South Taranaki beach in 2015.

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Other South Taranaki fossil discoveries include the remains of a bird with a six-metre wingspan and teeth in its beak, and penguins as tall as doors.

Mr Buchanan-Brown said Mr Wilson had done "a hell of a job", and if he had evidence of a mosasaur it would be an "amazing discovery".

However, the rocks in that area of Taranaki are primarily Miocene, dating from about 23 million years ago, he said, whereas fossil evidence points to mosasaur becoming extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period, around 65 million years ago.

Mr Buchanan-Brown said new discoveries were coming to light all the time.

"I would encourage anyone who is out and finds something unusual to take it to their local museum," he added.

This article originally appeared on Stuff and has been republished with permission

A group of flood survivors from northern New South Wales are protesting outside Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Kirribilli home in Sydney this morning.

The nine survivors, from Lismore, brought with them a truck full of debris from their destroyed homes.

The remnants of their homes, dumped on the pavement, included toys, a Christmas tree and wrecked homewares.

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The Lismore residents say they are frustrated by Mr Morrison's lack of action on climate change.

Kudra Ricketts, rescued neighbours from flood waters and also lost all her possessions. 

Ms Ricketts told Today she evacuated her house but expected just a small amount of floodwater to enter.

"It ended up going completely over the roof of my house, destroying everything that I owned," she said.

"We evacuated to my family house which has never flooded before. Felt like a safe place to me. It flooded up to my shoulders."

Mr Morrison was not at home to witness the protest. His car was seen driving out of the front gates just before protesters arrived.

"It's not just all the things you see in front of us that we lost," another protester said.

"Not just photo albums and artwork that we had to throw out on the street. We lost a sense of safety and security."

Ms Ricketts said she hoped their message would still reach the prime minister.

"I hope that he's able to listen to the media," she said. 

"He's done the same thing as he did when he was in Lismore. He didn't want to talk to us. He doesn't want to speak to us again. I can see that. It's time he starts to listen to us. 

"Unless we take real action on climate change, this is going to keep on happening not just our community but to other communities as well. 

"I don't want this to happen to anyone else. It's been so traumatic for me and everyone that I love. Climate change is here now."

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is predicting a brutal Federal election fight that goes right to the wire following Labor's stunning victory in South Australia.

"Scott Morrison and his government are going to throw everything at this," Ms Palaszczuk said, while suggesting Labor leader Anthony Albanese had "a huge mountain to climb" to win the election.

Ms Palaszczuk said "it will be a tough" battle.

Peter Malinauskas' storming triumph in the SA state election may have created some anxiety for Liberals in the looming Federal race.

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Labor's toppling of incumbent premier Steve Marshall is the first time an incumbent government has been kicked out of office since the pandemic began.

"I think it will be very close," Ms Palaszczuk said of the Federal election.

Mr Morrison has played down the impact of the SA boilover on the Federal election.

The most recent Newspoll, which tracks voter behaviour, gives Labor a 55-45 lead.

And in a sample of 1500 people, 55 per cent were dissatisfied with Mr Morrison's performance.

Ms Palaszczuk will today announce $690 million in construction projects in Brisbane ahead of the 2032 Olympic Games.

The Gabba will be demolished and rebuilt, and the Brisbane metro will be linked with the city's cross river rail.

By Jimmy Ellingham of RNZ Health officials have issued an apology after a Palmerston North woman in her 80s waited almost a day in the city hospital’s overcrowded emergency department until she was moved to a ward.Tania Putu’s…

A 26-year-old man is in an induced coma at Westmead Hospital after a violent brawl broke out at a fundraiser event in Lidcombe in Sydney's West.

The fight, which involved more than 100 people, started near the community centre around midnight and moved onto Lidcombe's Bridge Street.

The riot squad was called in to break up the crowd, which had gathered for a Tonga tsunami recovery fundraiser.

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Police say bottles, fists and logs were used as weapons.

"When police arrived at the scene it was quite chaotic," Detective Inspector Karl Leis, said.

"There were a number of people who had engaged in fights at the scene.

"We're not suggesting all the people there were involved in a melee."

Police, who said they were unaware of the large fundraiser, issued a warning.

"We have a situation now where a 26-year-old is in a critical condition in hospital," Inspector Leis, said.

"If people are heading out for a night, take personal responsibility because there can be life-changing consequences."

A 22-year-old Regents Park man with an outstanding warrant was arrested and refused bail, while a 31-year-old was fined for offensive conduct.

Investigations are ongoing.

A major investigation is underway after two bodies were found in a remote dam in Queensland.

The bodies of a couple were found tied together, floating in the Gordonbrook Dam.

It's the main water supply for the town of Kingaroy, about 150km north-west of Brisbane.

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Police believe the bodies are a local man aged in his fifties and a local woman aged in her late forties.

The circumstances around the deaths remain unclear.

They hadn't been reported missing, and it's understood detectives are not looking for a third person.

A group of mates on a boys weekend were camping on the banks of the dam when a kayaker found the bodies about 3.30pm yesterday.

Camper Gene Knight said the kayaker told them what he'd found.

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"He said, 'I just found two dead bodies up there.'

"It's pretty chaotic."

It's believed the couple had been travelling in a white 2004 Holden Commodore station wagon since seized by police.

Officers have urged anyone who saw the car parked in the picnic area of Gordonbrook Dam to get in touch. It is believed to have been there since February 22.

The campers say there was a message written on the car, which read, "gone to get fuel, be back soon".

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It was also covered in debris, indicating it had been there for days if not weeks, they said.

"It had be sitting there for a while — you could see all the debris and that sort of thing on it," Mr Knight said.

A post mortem is expected to be carried out.

Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.