Checkpoint

Kenzi Jordon's already got NCEA level 3 and University Entrance. She has mainly been taught at home after finding school boring. Now, she's hoping to be accepted to the University of Waikato to study mechatronics. Kenzi spoke to Lisa Owen.

One of the two rugby franchises will hold the Super Rugby Pacific title for the first time in a decade after tomorrow's final in Wellington. Sports reporter Jonty Dine spoke to Lisa Owen.

There were plenty of memories, hugs, performances and a lot of laughter as thousands gathered in Auckland to celebrate the life of Dame Jools Topp. Reporter Jessica Hopkins was there and spoke to Lisa Owen.

Health New Zealand faces a $190 million bill to process holiday pay owed to tens of thousands of current and former workers. Collectively, $1.8 billion is budgeted to repay those affected by the miscalculations. Unions are scathing of the cost of meeting the repayments, and of the process itself, which has been plagued by delays. But Health NZ said the work is complex and time-consuming and requires to comb through years of records on the different payroll systems inherited from district health boards. Jimmy Ellingham reports.

Love is in the air, in the Capital at least. Saturday is opening day for a bookstore focused on selling romance novels. The owner of XO Book Co in Willis Street says she wants to change people's ideas about the genre. Reporter Anya Fielding has a sneak preview and finds there's much more than Mills and Boon on the shelves.

It's do or die for the White Ferns in their T20 World Cup defence in the UK. New Zealand meet Ireland early tomorrow morning in Southampton, where a loss would all but end their title hope. Sports reporter Jonty Dine spoke to Lisa Owen.

An amateur sleuth working to identify hundreds of unmarked Otago graves is welcoming funding to properly recognise "pauper plots". Dunedin Council's announced it's getting almost $200,000 from the government to investigate unmarked graves of people who died in institutional care. There were several so-called lunatic asylums, church and welfare institutions in the region. Laura Furness spoke to Lisa Owen.

Middle East correspondent Lou Browne spoke to Lisa Owen about how the war on Iran has tested the relationship between the US and Israel particularly President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Brewers Association says tax on alcohol just keeps being cranked up without justification and needs to be reviewed. Alcohol excise is tagged to inflation and automatically goes up annually. The Brewers Association says since 2020 tax on beer has gone up more than 26 percent. It also points to dropping consumption and hospitality liquidiations as reasons for a revamp. Brewers Association executive director Dylan Firth spoke to Lisa Owen.

Australia correspondent Nick Grimm spoke to Lisa Owen about a nationally-televised speech by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson that is dividing Australians - with some cheering on the right-wing party leader - while others warn her policy ideas will harm those struggling with cost-of-living pressures.