Northland news in brief: Lucky Lotto winner, human remains found

Helicopter takes girl to hospital
A girl was taken to hospital after getting into trouble at Baylys Beach on Saturday.
Lifeguard responded when a 6-year-old girl inhaled water and was brought to the lifeguards by her parents just after 1pm. She was drifting in and out of consciousness, vomiting and foaming from the mouth. Lifeguards quickly responded and put the girl on oxygen. Her condition improved because of the intervention from the lifeguards and she became alert and started talking. The lifeguards didn’t feel her condition was stable, and by time the rescue helicopter arrived, she deteriorated and began vomiting again. The patient and her father were taken to hospital via rescue helicopter.

Lucky Lotto winner
A Whangārei Lotto player is $125,000 better off after sharing in the First Division prize on Saturday.
The ticket sold on My Lotto in $125,000 was among eight that each won $125,000 with Lotto First Division in Saturday night’s draw.
The winning Lotto numbers were 2, 4, 11, 13, 25 and 27, with the bonus number 40 and Powerball number 5. Powerball was not struck on Saturday and will be worth a whopping $17 million on Wednesday.
The winning Strike numbers were 11, 25, 2 and 13.

Fountains off in Kaipara
Kaipara District Council has turned off drinking fountains throughout the district as a Covid precautionary measure.
Families are advised to take a water bottle when they are out and about, especially when going to parks.
Meanwhile, the council’s customer service centre was closed yesterday as a staff became ill with a tummy bug.
The council advised the public to use its online service, call on 0800 727 059, or to wait for the sick employee to be back at work.

Ram-raid at dairy
Whangārei dairy Bank Street Foodmart was ram-raided for the second time in the past month on Friday night.
Offenders drove with what is believed to be a stolen vehicle into the shop front and stole vapes.
Police believe the incident is linked to youth who had stolen a car earlier that day.
The first ram-raid occurred on December 29 and caused several thousand dollars in damage.
The shop manager hopes to install a bollard outside the dairy to prevent further incidents.

Remains believed to be missing man
Human remains found in the bush in Pipiwai on Saturday night believed to be those of missing man Kukama Waa.
The body has not yet been formally identified, however police confirmed they were found near to where Waa went missing.
The formal search for Waa had been suspended on Friday, after a large-scale, two-week rescue mission.
The remains were found by members of Waa’s whānau, who had continued searching following suspension of the formal search.

Suspicious fire
Fire crew were called back out to Ahipara’s Shipwreck Bay (Te Kōhanga) after concerns from the public that a wild fire from Friday had flared up again.
Firefighters contained the flare-ups on Saturday evening.
The fire was started when an abandoned crashed vehicle was set alight down a bank in Shipwreck Bay in the early hours of Friday and tore through 5ha of bush.
The fire is treated as suspicious.

Watermain bursts
Water is draining from the Onerahi water reservoir after a watermain burst at the intersection of Awarua River Rd and Riverside Dr on Sunday.
Residents in Onerahi and Whangārei Heads are asked to reduce water use as much as possible while the repair is done and the reservoir is filled.
The repair will take several days.