Severe thunderstorms - with marble-sized hail and flooding rainfall - are expected to hit the upper South Island today, MetService warns.

A badly quake-damaged stretch of State Highway 1 south of Kaikoura could be reopened by mid-December, says Simon Bridges.

South Island police are investigating the incident that occurred at the Paringa Salmon Farm Café, South Westland.

An out-of-town beekeeper who parked up in Westport to eat his lunch yesterday afternoon left a trail of angry bees behind him.

Summer will be well and truly here this week with temperatures expected to soar to 29C in some parts.

Animal control officers were alerted to a "large, rogue goat" that was reported disrupting traffic in Oamaru.

Compared to other fibres, yak wool is more sustainable because yaks aren't farmed specifically for wool.

Longer freight routes between the islands and through the northern South Island have prompted freight company Toll NZ to hike its rates.

A moderate earthquake has rattled the top of the South Island, 25km south east of Seddon.

Emergency supplies have finally landed in a cut-off community just 22km north of Kaikoura.

This could be the perfect postcard of rural New Zealand ... but this rural idyll has become the Ground Zero of Monday's mammoth magnitude-7.8 earthquake.

A 27 truck military convoy battled poor weather and the threat of more landslides to deliver 8860ltrs of fuel and 10,000ltrs of water to Kaikoura today.

Farmers and the fishing industry get $5 million relief package.

The changes to the freight routes in and out of Canterbury have seen an 18 per cent increase in cost.

LIVE BLOG: US warship on its way to Kaikoura as aftershocks continue to shake the North Canterbury region.

Mid Canterbury farmers are on standby to take dairy cows from quake-affected North Canterbury dairy farmers.

Three cows left standing on an island of land have drawn international attention.

Heavy rain and wind is forecast to batter the upper South Island and lower North Island this afternoon.

The United States and Canada were New Zealand's biggest foreign investors over the last three years.

It was a wild day of weather for the upper North Island yesterday, but what will today bring?

It's been a disappointing season for sheep farmers but shareholders in Alliance Group - the country's biggest sheep meat processor - to look forward to.

An unseasonable cold snap will be felt in much of the country over the weekend as a front moves over the North Island.

Farming entrepreneur Colin Harvey has put his 6,639-hectare Lake McKay Station up for sale.

A weather balloon with cameras attached has captured a stunning view of Central Otago from the sky.

It should be a fine Labour weekend for most Kiwis, with a high set to arrive on Saturday.

A dog attacked his hens so this man used the closest thing to hand when he took his anger out on the dog owner.

A 13-and-a-half-year-old golden retriever has clocked up a whopping 700,000km over the years.

Heavy snow has fallen across parts of the South Island cutting power and bringing down trees.

A new Queenstown house has become a local curiosity.

Heavy rain is set to drench southern parts of the South Island. Westland, south of the glaciers, is expecting peak rainfalls up