Hamilton's top police officer has labelled a brutal attack on two of his staff this weekend as 'cowardly' and 'unacceptable'.

Cooking demonstrations, fish filleting and mussel opening competitions are part of the fun at the Tauranga Moana Seafood Festival.

A jury took just three hours to find Waikato horse breeder Greg Meads guilty of murdering his wife, in the Hamilton High Court has this afternoon.

Hamilton police are appealing for the mother of an 18-month-old girl to contact them after the child was allegedly abducted yesterday.

During Waimarino's new Thermal Hot Pool & Glow-worm Cave Kayak Tour, paddlers skirt the bushy shores of Lake Rotoiti before slipping into a cave where glow-worms twinkle all around.