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Kia ora
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Happy New Year from Kāinga Ora, and Happy Lunar New Year 2026.
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This year’s Chinese Zodiac is the Fire Horse. The Year of the Horse signals a year of action, maintaining momentum and being bold.
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Kick off the year with our ideas to help you stay on track. Read about remarkable customer journeys from Kevin in Auckland and Lance and Anna in Napier. We also offer suggestions for staying safe in warm weather and important messages from our partners.
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Contents
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1.
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Keep your new year goals on track
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2.
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Ideas for connecting with neighbours
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3.
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Healthy mouth, healthy heart
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4.
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Get your letters delivered to your inbox instead of your mailbox.
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5.
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Add MyKāinga Ora to your homescreen
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6.
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Kevin’s journey from living in his car to giving back to the community
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7.
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Ways to keep your home dry
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8.
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Water safety tips
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9.
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Keep safe in the sun
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10.
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New home for Lance and Anna’s whānau
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11.
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Keeping safe
around dogs
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12.
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Fire safety around barbecues and outdoor fires.
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Keep your new year goals on track
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Health goals
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Keep active and boost your physical fitness - Sport New Zealand has excellent ideas on incorporating play, active recreation such as hiking, running and fishing, or joining a sports team at whatever skill level you’re at.
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Age Concern holds regular Steady As You Go classes for older people to help build and maintain strength, balance and stability. It’s also an opportunity for social connection. Search ‘steady as you go’ for classes in your local area.
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Focus on your mental wellbeing with suggestions in our editorial.
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Get more, good-quality sleep – we all know having a good night’s rest can set us up well for the day ahead, but it also helps with mental function, appetite, and stress and anxiety. Healthify has great ways to improve your sleep, such as keeping your body cool, darkening your room, minimising your screen time, limiting caffeine a few hours before bed, and doing some light movement such as a relaxing yoga session. If your mind is active, try quiet reflection with a sleep meditation or journalling your thoughts. Or try the Twenty Winks Sleep Questionnaire to get personalised recommendations.
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Financial goals
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For extra help with your budgeting and financial knowledge and skills, check out MoneyTalks, who will put you in touch with a free financial mentor.
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Ideas for connecting with your neighbours
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Connectedness is vital for wellbeing and resilience, creating happier, healthier individuals and communities.
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Share food from your garden or organise a food, seed or toy swap.
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Do some baking and share it with neighbours.
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Check in with neighbours after bad weather or natural disasters and share resources.
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Start a Neighbourhood Support group and stay connected through an online chat group.
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Create a Neighbourhood Resilience Plan.
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The Neighbourhood Support website has lots more ideas on how to connect with your neighbours: neighbourhoodsupport.co.nz/know-your-neighbours
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The link between rheumatic fever and oral health
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Did you know that there’s a link between oral health, rheumatic fever and heart health? Looking after your teeth and gums helps protect your heart, especially for people who have had acute rheumatic fever or are living with rheumatic heart disease. Gum infections and tooth decay can let bacteria enter the blood and harm a weak heart.
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Rheumatic fever is an abnormal autoimmune response usually following a Group A streptococcal (GAS) throat infection. In some cases, the inflammation caused by rheumatic fever can cause rheumatic heart disease.
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Getting early care for sore throats, brushing teeth twice daily, having regular dental check-ups, and ensuring early treatment of dental problems can all help keep whānau well.
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Sore throat, fever, joint pain, or unusual jerky movements
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See a health professional straight away.
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Ask about strep throat testing.
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Bleeding gums or toothache
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Book a dentist visit (or the school dental team for under-18s – it’s free).
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Don’t wait – early care prevents bigger problems.
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You/your child have had acute rheumatic fever or are living with rheumatic heart disease
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Tell your dentist/doctor/nurse.
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Ask if antibiotics are needed before dental work is done.
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Keep up with 6–12 monthly dental checks.
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Money or transport
is a barrier
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Contact your public health nurse/iwi/Pacific provider to see if they can support you.
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Contact Work and Income about the Special Needs Grants for dental care.
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For free health advice call Healthline (24/7) on 0800 611 116.
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Get your letters delivered to your inbox instead of your mailbox
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Kāinga Ora would like to send you, our customers, information by email, because it’s quicker and more reliable, especially now that mail is delivered less often.
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If you would like to receive important letters from Kāinga Ora by email, we need your permission to do this.
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Take a moment to call our customer support team on 0800 801 601, ask for your email to be an ‘address for service’, and the representative can organise the change over the phone for you.
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Make accessing MyKāingaOra even easier with the home screen icon
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Add MyKāingaOra to your home screen so you can easily access your tenancy information online, at any time, from the comfort of your home or while out and about.
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For Android
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Tap ‘Add to home screen’ in the dropdown menu.
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For iOS (iPhone/iPad)
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Tap the ‘Share’ button on the browser’s toolbar – that’s the rectangle with an arrow pointing upward:
‒ On an iPad, it’s on the bar at the top of the screen.
‒ On an iPhone, it’s on the bar at the bottom of the screen.
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For full instructions on how to set up for your PC desktop and other mobile operating systems, visit our website.
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Kevin’s journey – from living in his car to giving back to his community
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When Kevin was living in his car, watching a new apartment complex rise across the road, he never imagined that one day he’d call it home and become the go-to guy for his neighbours.
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Today, Kevin is part of an active group of residents who volunteer to help their community in a public housing development in Auckland. He helps run a food rescue initiative that brings people together and supports those doing it tough.
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Ways to keep your home dry
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Sometimes our homes can get too hot or too cold, or have too much moisture in the air – and these can all affect our health.
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These tips will help to keep your home healthy:
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Use the extractor fan while you’re showering and open windows to let the steam out.
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Air your house out – open the house right up for 15 minutes on days that are sunny and dry, so all the inside air is blown through and replaced by drier outside air.
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Put lids on your pots while you’re cooking, and use your rangehood.
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If you’re concerned about the health of your home, you can self-refer to Health New Zealand’s Healthy Homes Initiative (HHI).
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HHI providers can visit your home, work with you to develop a plan and then support you to keep your home warm and dry with interventions like education, beds and bedding. They can also work with Kāinga Ora if you need extra heating for tamariki and support with minor repairs.
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Water safety
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Drowning is a leading cause of death for tamariki, but it is preventable. Young tamariki, especially those under five, are most at risk of drowning at home. Tamariki can drown in as little as 4cm of water, so always empty paddling pools and buckets after use. Just as importantly, make sure all pools are properly fenced – including temporary or inflatable pools. By actively supervising our tamariki and ensuring safe pool fencing for every pool at home, we can protect our mokopuna.
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Keep you and your whānau cool and safe in the water and in the sun
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Easter and Anzac holidays aren’t far away, and the weather is still warm. Make sure you’re keeping safe in the sun, by the pool or on the water, and cool and hydrated during exercise. Ensure your home is secure, especially if you’re planning to head away for a long weekend.
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Check out our guide full of safety tips for the holidays and warmer weather:
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“Unpack your bags – we’re here to stay”
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Napier’s largest social housing development is giving families like Lance and Anna’s the stability they’ve been searching for.
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They recently moved into one of the 30 new homes, along with their two boys, aged 8 and 10, and their 6-year-old daughter. They’ve spent years moving from one temporary solution to another, always searching for a place to call home. Their journey has been one of resilience.
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After returning from Australia, they stayed with relatives before moving into emergency housing, a one-bedroom unit in a Hawke’s Bay motor camp.
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Keep yourself and dogs safe and happy
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Dogs don’t usually mean to hurt people, but sometimes it can happen – either by accident or because they are feeling scared or upset or are in pain.
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The good news is that most dogs try to give us clear warning signs when they are anxious, frightened or angry. By learning to understand a dog’s body language, and by knowing how to act safely around them, you can help keep both yourself and dogs safe and happy.
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Keep your whānau safe and happy around dogs:
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Learn how to ‘speak dog’ – dog body language and what it’s telling us.
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Know the important rules to follow when you’re in a home with a dog.
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Understand what to do if an unknown dog approaches you.
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Know how to politely and safely meet a dog.
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Firing up the barbecue? Keep your barbecue under control without putting people, property or nature at risk.
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Fire and Emergency New Zealand recommends that you:
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check the fire danger and avoid lighting your barbecue when the fire danger is Very High or Extreme
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clean your barbecue well before each use and check for gas leaks using the soapy water test
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have a no-go zone to keep kids and pets safe
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have a suitable way to extinguish your barbecue within easy reach, and no more than 5 metres away
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don’t leave your fire unsupervised while it’s burning.
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Use Fire and Emergency’s tool to check it’s a good day to light the barbecue: checkitsalright.nz/can-i-light-a-fire
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