The Kaitaia-based Nga Papahu Swim Club gave the major plaudits for having four of its swimmers qualify for a major swimming meet to inspirational coach Jim Larkin.

Thirty years ago rugby league coaching legend Graham Lowe vowed to come back to Northland one day to help a region where he saw so much talent yet so much disadvantage and despair.

The expansion of Top Energy's geothermal power generation at Ngawha has been given the go-ahead following the withdrawal of challenges to the Environment Court.

A 68-year-old woman whose tiny one-bedroom unit was burgled on Monday night, while she slept, was imagining what might have happened while she waited for the police to arrive on Tuesday afternoon.

Fine but windy conditions dominated when the Far North RSA Bowling Club completed an open mixed triples event at the end of March.

Bill Tuckey reckoned he'd probably spend yesterday pottering around his house, perhaps tending to his dahlias or picking the last of his tomatoes and taking a walk to the top of the hill...

Te Runanga o Te Rarawa chairman Haami Piripi and Northland regional councillor Dover Samuels were elected chairman and deputy chairman of the newly-formed Te Oneroa-a-Tohe Board...

Cooks from five Far North marae have their sights set on winning the title Marae Kai Masters 2016, but they have seven others to get past in the Maori Television series that began screening on March 16.

Switzer Residential Care general manager Jackie Simkins has made it very clear that an 'unsuccessful' appeal to the home for help when a tetraplegic found himself marooned in the Mangamuka Gorge on March 24 was a problem not of the home's making.

A turf war has broken out at a much-loved Kiwi surf break over a camera broadcasting surf conditions.

Worrying surge in number of young people ignoring tobacco health warnings.

Alycia Burton and the remarkable rapport she can achieve with her horse were on display at a free, informal clinic at the Kaitaia A&P Showgrounds earlier this month.

The Far North is welcoming the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education's nationwide push to ban sugary drinks.

"Look out hoons," said the message in the 'In Brief' column on the front page of last Thursday's Age, so they did.

It had the potential to cause catastrophic damage, but the fire that broke out in a store room at Town and Country Food in Kaitaia's main street on Monday afternoon was quickly brought under control by two Kaitaia Fire Brigade crews.

The family of a patched member of the tribesmen gang who was last seen with a fellow gang member, who is wanted by police for kidnapping and aggravated robbery, have concerns for his welfare.

The Maori fisheries trust says the government has ignored hard-win iwi fishing rights in the Kermadec marine sanctuary.

Two new hot lap records were burnt into the clay at Taipa Speedway on Sunday.

My apologies for the weather yesterday, something beyond my control. I have organised the zone swimming event for the past 18 years, without the weather being too unkind.

The Oturu School community problem-solving team's runner-up success in the national finals of Future Problem Solving New Zealand in Auckland at the end of last year has earned them an invitation to the United States.

A box brimming with donations for Opua School has been stolen from the counter of the town's general store.

Two historic pou discovered in a Far North shed have been saved from destruction and have excited local iwi, who believe the items are pre-missionary carvings.

Storm that battered New Zealand has caused widespread flooding, resulting in hundreds of evacuations, thousands left without power, and chaos on the roads.

Flooding has led to evacuations in Westland in the south while winds battering the upper North Island have left scores of households without power.

One of the best female kickboxers in the world ran a clinic for students of the Kiaido Ryu Martial Arts organisation at Kaitaia College earlier this month.

Sixty students from Riverview Primary School were recently seen gliding across Lake Manuwai in glorious Indian Summer conditions over a week earlier this month when they took part in the Volvo Sailing Have a Go programme .

Taipa sheep and beef farmers Dennis and Rachelle O'Callaghan have been named supreme winners of the 2016 Northland Ballance Farm Environment Awards.