Favourable weather has allowed salvors to continue to remove containers and debris from the wreck of the Rena.

Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) says two 40-foot containers and a 20-foot container were cut up and removed from the ship on Tuesday.

Salvors have also been on board emptying containers of leather skins.

Helicopters have been used during the salvage operations this week.

Coastal iwi affected by the Rena disaster are calling for a royal commission of inquiry into the grounding.

The ruined container ship has been aground on a reef off the Tauranga coast since October 5 with oil and debris still washing up on beaches and islands.

A hui of 16 iwi has decided to ask the government to appoint a royal commission to investigate all aspects of the Rena grounding.

No debris or oil from the stranded and broken-up container ship the MV Rena have washed up on Eastern Bay of Plenty beaches but boaties are being warned to stay away from White Island.

A team of divers have delved under the stricken vessel Rena to see how containers underwater can be salvaged, Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) says.

Improving weather allowed the divers to carry out preliminary sub-surface inspections of the ship after it split in two in bad weather last weekend, spilling further oil, containers and debris into the ocean.

The container ship had sat precariously on Astrolabe Reef off the coast of Mt Maunganui since running aground on October 5.

Please find attached information regarding the three bank accounts that have been established to tautoko the RENA crisis. Two of the accounts are administered by Te Runanga o Ngai Te Rangi Iwi Trust and one account is administered by the Maketu Taiapure Committee.

There is one bank account for ALL of Tauranga Moana:

Name: Te Runanga o Ngai Te Rangi Iwi Trust

RENA: Tautoko

BANK: Westpac

Number: 03-1547-0121206-04

A public meeting regarding the current Rena situation is taking place TODAY. Try and make it if you can.

LOCATION: Maketu Fire Station, Wilson Road, Maketu.

DATE: Friday 13th January.

TIME: 2PM.

* Fallen shipping containers from the stricken ship Rena begun washing up on Mt Maunganui beach overnight and this morning

* Maritime New Zealand has closed Mount Maunganui Beach until the contents and hazardous nature of at least four containers can be determined

* A second officer charged over his role in the Rena disaster has appeared in Tauranga District Court this morning

* Clean up crews have collected 55 tonnes of solid waste and five tonnes of liquid waste from 17 kilometres of shoreline

So-called toxic drilling and fracking wastes are being used to create dozens of hectares of lush pasture in coastal Taranaki, says a company accused of "ecocide" by environmentalists.

Environmental group Climate Justice Taranaki has accused the Taranaki Regional Council of approving the spreading of the toxic fracking and drilling wastes onto coastal land near New Plymouth airport that will eventually be grazed by cows.

A Taupo Maori land trust and Contact Energy have signed an agreement that will allow exploratory geothermal drilling to go ahead within a year.

The drilling will be carried out on trust land north of Taupo and 600m from Contact's proposed Tauhara 2 geothermal power station development.

An eastern Bay of Plenty iwi and Greenpeace want the High Court to quash a giant Brazilian oil firm's permit to explore off the East Cape, saying the Government's decision-making process was unlawful.

Te Runanga o Te Whanau a Apanui and the environmental organisation lodged an application for a binding judicial review of the decision to grant Petrobras a five-year exploration permit covering the Raukumara Basin.

Both groups strongly oppose the exploration, and staged protests on the water this year.