First Up for Wednesday 23 June 2021

5:53 AM.Just 500-thousand dollars of the $235 million set aside for new mental health facilities has been spent, leading the health minister to express his frustration at how longs it's taking to see the… Read more Audio

5:49 AM.Now to a story about how a group of prisoners went from making methamphetamine to making yoghurt, turning it into a commodity so popular that it was smuggled between prisons. In 2013 best friends and… Read more Audio

5:44 AM.Fiji has had another day of record Covid-19 cases as overseas medical teams including New Zealanders arrive in the country to help deal with the escalating crisis. There were 180 new cases yesterday… Read more Audio

5:35 AM.With just a month to go the New Zealand weightlifting team have been selected for the Tokyo Olympic Games. Cameron McTaggart will be making his Olympic debut in the men's under 81kg weight class… Read more Audio

5:30 AM.India have begun their second innings at bat in the World Test Cricket final in England - New Zealand led by 32 runs at the end of their first innings. The rain affected test is in to it's fifth - and… Read more Audio

5:22 AM.Rangers at Auckland's Shakespear Regional Park are battling a stoat invasion, which they say is taking some creativity. It began with a single female Stoat sneaking into the park, and worsened after… Read more Audio

5:16 AM.Wild Weaves NZ is a local business which combines woven yarn with dried flowers to make botanical wall hangings. The colourful pieces of art are handmade all by Jessica Ennor. Our reporter Ella… Read more Audio

5:06 AM.We begin this morning in Australia where the growing Sydney Covid-19 cluster has closed the Quarantine Free bubble with New Zealand for the next 3 days and is heaping pressure on the federal… Read more Audio