Board was found covered in barnacles and mussels in Raglan, nearly 18 months after it was lost during a boat trip near Tasmania

A surfboard lost off Australia’s coast nearly 18 months ago has washed up on one of New Zealand’s most famed surf beaches, thousands of kilometres from where it was last seen.

New Zealand-based French surfer Alvaro Bon was kite surfing in Raglan on the North Island’s west coast on 15 October, when his kite caught in the water and he began drifting out to sea.

Photographers capture extremely unusual phenomenon – also known as red sprites – against backdrop of the Milky Way

A trio of photographers in New Zealand have captured images of “red sprites”, or red lightning, one of the rarest light phenomena in the world, in which luminous crimson flashes appear in the sky.

New Zealand photographer Tom Rae and Spanish photographers Dan Zafra and José Cantabrana set out to shoot the Milky Way over the Ōmārama Clay cliffs in the South Island on 11 October, when they chanced upon the extraordinary event.

New research examines how traditional artists worked as revitalisation efforts see tā moko – Māori tattooing – become more visible in New Zealand

In New Zealand’s national museum, master Māori tattoo artists painstakingly apply ink to the faces of eight men and women as a large crowd watches on.

Thin lines spiral over the men’s cheeks, dipping towards the jaw and up over the forehead, while lines curl around the women’s chins – each mark telling the story of its wearer’s identity, lineage and experience. Surrounding them are their families, who sing and grip their hands as they lay still under the needle and weight of the sacred – and usually private – ceremony.