Morning Report

Not all the Alert Level 2 details are ironed out yet, but skifields are preparing for opening.

Bridget Legnavsky, general manager of the South Island's Cardrona and Treble Cone skifields, is expecting the first skiers to hit the slopes in late June.

She speaks to Corin Dann.

New Zealanders have a new date to count down to and the promise of more freedom on the horizon.

Come Thursday, the country will drop out of Alert Level 3 and into Level 2.

It triggers a major relaxation of the restrictions which have governed people's lives for nearly seven weeks as part of efforts to eliminate Covid-19.

Here's RNZ deputy political editor Craig McCulloch.

New Zealanders have relished the chance to re-claim their takeaway flat whites, but at what cost to the environment?

Alert Level 4 is estimated to have saved more than 20 million coffee cups going to landfill but now they're overflowing rubbish bins.

Rachel Thomas has been speaking to those trying to make a dent in the waste mountain.

News from the rural and farming sector.

A brief update from the business sector.

New Zealanders welcome moving into alert level 2 and the extra freedoms it brings.

As Chinese zoos and aquariums grapple with new bans on wildlife trade, a New Zealand tech entrepeneur is seeing unexpected interest in her latest project.

Melanie Langlotz has helped build a life-sized robot dolphin that looks and swims just like a real bottlenose and can echo-locate and react to human gestures.

It could end up plugging the gap for struggling Chinese zoos and aquariums.

Katie Todd explains.

There is a push for Tokelau to again have the chance to decide if it should become independent from New Zealand.

A Tokelauan leader wants a referendum on independence to be held by 2025, the centenary of New Zealand's rule.

RNZ's Mackenzie Smith reports.

The government says it will shore-up New Zealand's family and sexual violence services in the upcoming 2020 budget to the tune of $183 million over the next four years.

Reports suggest that the already high rates of family violence have increased in recent weeks as victims find it harder to distance themselves from their abusers under Covid-19 restrictions.

Jan Logie, under-secretary to the Minister of Justice for Domestic and Sexual Violence Issues, speaks to Corin Dann.

The Green Building Council has a housing plan it says would be a quick-fire way to stimulate the economy in the wake of Covid-19.

In a new report, it urges the Government to invest in warmer homes, which it says could save billions of dollars, create jobs, save lives and lower carbon emissions.

RNZ housing reporter Eva Corlett with this story.