The quake-rattled Wellington region has received more rain in 24 hours than it would in a month.

Traffic leaving central Wellington is gridlocked as commuters scramble to leave the rain-battered city.

The truck driver who narrowly escaped being buried in the quake won't be in the dog box for calling his boss before his partner.

A crater lake in Central Otago has given a Kiwi scientist a unique insight into how quickly climate change could cause the Antarctic ice sheet to melt.

Four months later, baby Carsen has defied all the odds - and now surgeons are planning a never-before-performed operation to give him the best shot at life.

The Maori Party is calling for a "long overdue" law change to establish Maori wards on every district council in New Zealand.

Six teams of Kiwi explorers will attempt to become the first to climb challenging new routes on some of the most precarious peaks on Earth.

A prisoner kept in solitary confinement at Mt Eden prison has died this week.

Russell Crowe made a poignant tribute to his late cousin Martin by visiting the club where he developed into New Zealand's greatest batsman.

The nurse who threw a dildo at Cabinet Minister Steven Joyce has returned.

11 permits refused in the past months alone due to sex offences, but agency says most of those new applicants.

Pene Pati has tied the knot with his sweetheart at the venue where he publicly proposed to her a year earlier.

From extreme weather to a ponytail-pulling Prime Minister, it's been an eventful year in NZ. We take a look back at some of the biggest stories.

This year's weird and wonderful tales range from mystery pool poos to a Nelson couple's surprise baby.

2015 saw a lot of strange news and strange headlines come through the New Zealand Herald.

Floods, fires, thunderstorms and tornadoes all wreaked havoc this year as New Zealand shivered and sweltered through another 12 months of climatic extremes.

Here's four things I've learned about quitting.

Quitting smoking? Actually pretty easy.

I was, as they say in Palmerston North, totally maggot.

One week to go - only one week until I can go back to smoking 20 cigarettes a day.

Today, I look like a cartoonish stoner in a suit.

When you deprive your body of a substance it's addicted to, some pretty weird sh** starts to happen.

Secondhand smoke. You either love it or hate it. Sometimes it's both.

Maybe it was complacency, or naive bravado, or simple, glorious stupidity. I thought I had this beat.

Somehow I went 12 hours without putting on a patch. And I didn't even notice.

I could just have one cigarette. Just one cigarette couldn't hurt, right?

Here's my thoughts on quitting when you're feeling terrible - it sucks, writes Matthew Backhouse.

The act of lighting up - once the signifier of youthful rebellion and effortless chic - has became seriously uncool.

I haven't felt alone for a moment since I quit smoking. And it's in no small part thanks to you.

The only thing preventing me from having a complete, catastrophic meltdown is an overblown sticking plaster.

It finally happened. I didn't just snap. I totally lost it.

I know quitting has its ups and downs. Tomorrow might be harder. But today, despite my body's protests, I felt at ease.

It's easier not to smoke when you're asleep. I'll try not to wake up this month.

There I was, tossing up whether to lick the cigarette butts in the ashtray, hoping for even a glimmer of that nicotine buzz.

Journalist Matthew Backhouse chronicles his efforts to quit smoking for Stoptober in a daily diary.

Ten of the Royal New Zealand Air Force's Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopters, known as Hueys, will be sold to Dakota Air Parts.

After medical treatment, the injured hero returned to check on two shaken jewellery shop staff who had been confronted by the attacker.

Former boss of arrested Kiwi Peter Gardner says he's "hard-working, loyal guy" as Mfat says girlfriend's release down to China.

The trial for the man who is accused of setting a Wellington storage facility on fire, destroying millions of dollars worth of property, has started in the High Court

A 38-year-old man suffered an electric shock after the mast of a boat struck power lines at the Outward Bound School in Marlborough this afternoon.

Auckland suburbs that have been without power for more than a day and a half face a further delay until the lights come back on.

A lone Wellington yachtsman was showing signs of hypothermia after a snapped mast left him stranded nearly 2 nautical miles from shore this evening.

A "stunning" biography of a Wellington art dealer has beaten Eleanor Catton's acclaimed novel The Luminaries to win the top New Zealand Post Book Award.

A Nelson man has died after being struck by a wire on a commercial fishing vessel on the Pacific Ocean.

Scott Donaldson's kayak has been found on a Taranaki beach six weeks after he abandoned his trans-Tasman crossing attempt.

Hundreds of motorists are falsely registering their cars as ambulances, avoiding more than $200 in fees.

A 40-year-old man who was pinned under a tree in Marlborough this morning had been tutoring forestry students at the time.

Two people have suffered from moderate injuries after their vehicles crashed on State Highway 3 in Taranaki early this morning.

Twelve alleged sexual assaults were among almost 200 formal complaints laid against taxi drivers and companies with NZ Transport Agency in the past year.

Kim Dotcom says he's not behind the hacking of the Whale Oil blog, and he's not paid out any of a $5m bounty he'd offered for information to help his legal case.

A driver has contacted police after allegedly leaving the scene of a crash in which a teenage motorcyclist was seriously injured in south Auckland this morning.

Auckland University's student union was justified in sacking its general manager for financial mismanagement involving a loan to cover $1.4m in debt, a court has ruled.

More heavy rain will sweep across Auckland and Northland today after downpours dumped up to 100mm of rainfall overnight.

A public law expert says the Electoral Commission — which has recently cautioned against the Planet Key song — is very risk averse and conservative in its interpretation of electoral law.

Prime Minister John Key says a staff member has been “briefing the bloggers” but has distanced himself from Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater, saying: “He’s not my guy.”

A woman was killed and a cyclist seriously injured in two serious crashes in the central North Island early this morning.

Gable Tostee has been charged with murder a week after Kiwi woman Warriena "Rrie" Wright plunged 14 storeys to her death from his Gold Coast apartment balcony.

A rare golden lion tamarin and a male lion have died at zoos in Auckland and Wellington.

Fighting back tears, the sister of a young Kiwi woman who fell to her death from a Gold Coast balcony has described the pain of not knowing what happened.

A violent storm of thunder, lightning and hail struck the capital this afternoon, causing the wind needle near Wellington Airport to explode.

The tearful sister of a young Kiwi woman who plunged 14 storeys to her death from a Gold Coast balcony says she looked out for her.

A fast food chain's move to display nutritional information on menu boards has been called a step in the right direction, but dietitians say food outlets could do more.

The man who was with a young Kiwi woman before she plunged to her death says he is "obsessed with recording everything" and had security cameras in previous homes.