Wellington - Henry, a tuatara reptile relic of the dinosaur age said to be 111-years-old, is to become a father for the first time, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) usually become sexually mature at the age of about 20, but Henry, who lives at the Southland Museum in Invercargill, was a slow developer and did not discover sex until March when he had a romp with Mildred, who is in her 70s.

As a result, Mildred laid 12 eggs last month and although one has perished, the rest are doing well in a museum incubator and should hatch in about six months, curator Lindsay Hazley told the Southland Times.

Wellington - A coroner's inquest on a skull found on a New Zealand riverbank has highlighted the mystery of a victim who could have been the first European woman in the country when she died more than 350 years ago, news reports said Tuesday.

Pathologists said the skull, found near Featherston in Wairarapa province, belonged to a Caucasian woman in her early 40s and radiocarbon dating indicated she was alive in 1742, give or take 34 years.

Wellington - Rising oil prices will help New Zealand, the world's biggest exporter of milk products, continue to benefit from high international commodity dairy prices, according to a government report on Tuesday.

Oil prices show no sign of declining, so demand from members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), who take 21 per cent of New Zealand's total dairy exports, should remain strong, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) said.

Wellington - The New Zealand economy is in a recession, having contracted for two successive quarters, the Treasury said Tuesday in its monthly review of economic indicators.

The report backed consistent speculation of a recession by analysts, though this will not be officially confirmed until Statistics New Zealand releases economic data for the June quarter next month.

This is expected to show that the New Zealand economy registered negative growth in the quarter following a contraction in the first three months of the year.

Wellington - More than 1,700 passengers arrived back on dry land in Auckland Friday, telling reporters they had experienced a "nightmare, like a disaster movie" on a cruise ship hit by a subtropical storm in the Pacific.

Graphic footage, showing the moment when the P&O liner Pacific Sun rolled Wednesday as it hit 7-metre swells and 50-knot winds, was screened on New Zealand's TV3. It showed chairs, crockery and glass flying and gaming machines flung from walls as passengers screamed while they were steaming 600 kilometres north of Auckland.