It’s Monday. The costs of moving people around the country went up again over the weekend, while the money for fixing the places they go to arrived in smaller, more practical parcels. Here’s what’s moving.
Diesel is at $3.18 a litre and 91 at $3.44, and both are still under pressure
RNZ reports that local diesel prices are at their highest since about May, at $3.18 a litre according to the fuel-monitoring site Gaspy, up nearly 20 percent over the past 28 days. Regular 91 is up more than 15 percent over the month to $3.44 a litre, closing on the $3.50 mark it reached in April. Brent crude, the international benchmark, remains above US$104 a barrel, while the US benchmark has fallen back to about US$92. Reuters has linked the widening gap partly to talk of a US ban on diesel exports, which would tighten supply for the rest of the world, since the US is one of the largest exporters.
The timing is poor for anyone who drives for a living. Stats NZ’s monthly price figures a week ago already had diesel up 45.8 percent in the year to August, and the latest rise lands as the spring and school holiday season starts and as operators confirm rates for the summer. Transport operators, rental fleets and anyone running a vehicle-based product have to choose between absorbing the rise, adding a fuel surcharge, or repricing, and wholesale rates quoted to the trade months ago cannot easily be changed. For visitors, higher pump prices hit hardest on the self-drive holiday, which is how most domestic travellers and a large share of international ones see the country.
Stat of the day
$3.18
The average price of a litre of diesel, up nearly 20 percent in 28 days and the highest since about May. (Gaspy, via RNZ)
Source: RNZ
The visitor levy puts $675,000 into parking, toilets and a park-and-ride at Te Waihou Blue Spring
Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston announced on Friday that $675,000 from the International Visitor Levy will go towards visitor infrastructure at Te Waihou Blue Spring near Putāruru. South Waikato District Council and Ngāti Raukawa will deliver the work, which may include extending the main Leslie Road car park at the start of the track, new public toilets there, technology to support future visitor management, and a park-and-ride service.
The list reads like a direct answer to the complaints of last summer. In January RNZ reported rubbish being left in the composting toilets, coins thrown into the spring and illegal parking, and the regional council chair floated an access charge or a bus service as ways to manage the crowds. The Conservation Minister said at the time that the site was not a priority for the Department of Conservation. The money has now come from the levy instead, which is the pattern worth noticing: the levy is increasingly the fund of last resort for popular free sites that belong to no single agency, and the “technology to support future visitor management” line leaves the door open to booking or charging later.
Source: New Zealand Government, Mirage News, RNZ, January 2026
Kaitaki is back, and Interislander returns to a two-ship timetable with earlier sailings
The Interislander ferry Kaitaki returned to service on Saturday after winter maintenance in dry dock in Singapore, putting the fleet back on a two-ship timetable ahead of the spring and summer peak. KiwiRail says the work, which covered propeller, rudder, steering and stabiliser systems plus a full hull clean and repaint, is what keeps the ship running until the new ferries arrive in 2029.
Two timings change. Kaitaki’s morning Wellington to Picton sailing now leaves at 8.30am instead of 8.45am, and the return from Picton leaves at 2pm instead of 2.15pm, to improve reliability and connections with the Coastal Pacific train. Rail Minister Winston Peters said Interislander’s reliability this year stands at 100 percent, against 82 percent in 2021. Anyone who has itineraries built around the ferry should check those times now, and KiwiRail is telling passengers to book early for school holidays, Christmas and New Year.
Source: RNZ, Minister for Rail via Scoop
Taranaki’s Forgotten World Highway and Surf Highway get $7.5 million for two failing culverts
The Regional Infrastructure Fund will spend $7.5 million replacing two culverts in Taranaki: $2.5 million for the Toko Stream tributary culvert on SH43, the Forgotten World Highway, and $5 million for the Whenuariki Stream culvert on SH45, the Surf Highway. The SH43 culvert is estimated to have about two years of life left, and a failure could close the highway with a 50km diversion. The century-old, hand-dug SH45 culvert has already partly collapsed, and a failure there would send heavy vehicles on a 133km diversion.
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones named visitors among the users of the Forgotten World Highway, which is one of the country’s better-known back-road drives. Design and consenting are expected to start within six months, with construction in 2027. Culverts rarely make the news, but a single one failing can remove a touring route from a region’s map for a season, which is exactly the cost this is meant to avoid.
Source: New Zealand Government via LiveNews
Hamilton Gardens opens its Medieval Garden, and 70 percent of its visitors now pay
Hamilton Gardens opened its Medieval Garden on Thursday, the first addition since the Ancient Egyptian Temple Garden in 2022. It is a monastery cloister and apothecary garden partly modelled on the ruins of St John of the Hermits in Sicily, with covered walkways, a bell tower and medicinal herb beds. Work began in 2019 and took more than 10,000 handcrafted masonry pieces and about 280 tonnes of concrete. The one thing still missing is a real medieval bell, so a recording chimes on the hour for now.
The business model behind it is the more useful detail. Director Lucy Ryan told Te Awamutu News that around 70 percent of visitors are now paying customers since entry charges were introduced, reversing the balance before the change, and that visitor numbers have held up. The gardens are built as a “living museum” of themed gardens designed to bring people back, and a new garden every few years is how a paid attraction gives its drive-time market from Auckland, Tauranga and the wider Waikato a reason to return.
Source: NZ Herald, Te Awamutu News, Hamilton Gardens
World of WearableArt cancelled two shows after a crew member died at TSB Arena
A World of WearableArt crew member died after a medical event at Wellington’s TSB Arena on Friday morning. WOW cancelled Friday night’s performance and Saturday’s 2.30pm matinee, and returned for the Saturday evening show after making changes to the behind-the-scenes operation. Chief executive Meg Williams said the crew member worked in a highly specialised area of production. WorkSafe is making initial inquiries and the matter has been referred to the coroner.
Ticket holders for the cancelled shows have been offered a transfer to another performance or a refund.
Coming up
- 1 October: Parliament is dissolved, with writ day on 4 October
- 8 October: The old visitor visa application forms close and remaining drafts are deleted
- 12 October: Community drop-in on the proposed sale of Napier’s Kennedy Park Resort
- 25 October: Air New Zealand’s expanded Hobart to Auckland season starts
- 28 October: Reserve Bank OCR decision, and Air New Zealand’s first Christchurch to Singapore service
- 4 November: Tourism Summit Aotearoa and the NZ Tourism Awards, Te Pae Christchurch
That's today's briefing. The Shoulder Season is back every weekday morning.