Auckland

According to the Daily Telegraph's Buzz Rothfield, the Kangaroos will meet Tonga in Auckland in November, the same location as their last and only meeting.

The Test is reportedly due to be part of a massive triple-header that will also feature a match between the Kiwis and England, and a Pacific clash between Fiji and Samoa.

The recent rise of Tonga has breathed new life into international rugby league, with NRL stars such as Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita committing to the nation.

Iongi's partner and the father to her young son, Reginald Sharma, died in August 2017 after a single punch at an Auckland party. The man accused of causing his death was found not guilty by a jury earlier this month.

Sharma who was of Tongan and Indo-Fijian descent was 25 years old when he died and Iongi was seven months pregnant with his child.

"It's tough raising a baby without him," Iongi said, "I still don't know how I'm going to explain to my son what happened, it's hard to explain because I feel like I still don't have answers."

The Auckland Rugby League has named the trophy in recognition of the Mann family, who have contributed significantly to both the Auckland and Tongan game over several decades.

The match will serve as the headline act of the Queen’s Birthday Weekend representative showdown, which will also see the Auckland Maori U20 take on the Toa Samoa Invitational U20.

ARL general manager Greg Whaiapu said the trophy announcement added an historic element to a new concept.

All flights into Auckland Airport are being diverted because of debris on the main runway caused by strong winds.

The airport said flights were either being returned to their originating airport or Christchurch.

There is no estimated time for when the runway will reopen, it said.

MetService said the winds have eased but would remain strong overnight in Auckland, Coromandel and Waikato.

Civil Defence said it was not activating or mobilising but were standing by to monitor the response.

Festival organisers this year are wanting to focus the two-day event on connecting with village co-ordinators and Pacific communities.

Twenty six years ago the festival began as a joint initiative between community leaders and the council to bring Pasifika communities together.

It is also an opportunity to celebrate and share Pacific Island cultures with the wider Auckland community.

The event now attracts over 60,000 visitors over the two day festival.

Auckland will host the Tonga New Zealand Residents in the feature match on Saturday, June 2, with a sea of red set to converge on Mount Smart Stadium #2 following on from Mate Ma’a Tonga’s success at the recent Rugby League World Cup.

In the curtain-raiser the Auckland Maori U20 will face Samoa U20, with both games to be streamed live and free on aucklandleague.co.nz.

ARL general manager Greg Whaiapu said aside from putting the Auckland jersey back at the forefront of the New Zealand league scene, it was a chance to provide players with a meaningful representative game.

Pacific Trade Invest (PTI) NZ is working in association with Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED), an organisation of the Auckland Council, to create the Pacific Hub that will host exporting companies from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau.

Though PTI has hosted Pacific companies at Pasifika since 2016, stalls of PTI-hosted companies tended to be scattered across the ‘villages’ throughout the sprawling Western Springs property.

James Wakefield, manager of No. 1 Queen Street Café in Britomart, was pulling the café sign down at about 8am this morning when something unusual happened. 

"I noticed a flash out of the corner of my eye, looked around and saw a fish on the ground," he told Newshub.

Mr Wakefield says his first reaction was to Snapchat the incident, "as you do".

He assumes the fish was a "seagull's breakfast" that had been dropped as it was flown over downtown Auckland. 

Some might say he's gone out of the frying pan and into the fire, but former All Black Alama Ieremia has been tasked with turning round the fortunes of the problem Auckland provincial side.

Ieremia's appointment as head coach for the next three seasons was announced on Monday by the Auckland Rugby Union. The 47-year-old former Hurricanes assistant and most recently in charge of the Manu Samoa setup takes over from Nick White who stepped aside at the end of a horror 2017 campaign that saw the Auks go 3-7 and narrowly avoid relegation from the Mitre 10 Cup's Premiership division.

The outbreak has followed the All Blacks on their end of year tour with four All Blacks, one by one, taken down in as many weeks.

Jack Goodhue, Rieko Ioane and Ardie Savea all contracted the infectious viral disease, and now lock Luke Romano.

“Luke Romano's in semi-quarantine, because he's got them as well, so I think that might be four cases,” says Coach Steve Hansen. “And all of them have been vaccinated.”

It follows a huge spike in mumps cases in Auckland this year - now nearing 900 - numbers not seen in decades.