Black ice has caused several crashed on State Highway 5 this morning, with parts of central North Island experiencing temperatures well below zero.

A person has died after a motorbike crash north of Auckland.

One person was taken to hospital in a critical condition after a crash on Auckland's Tamaki Drive this morning.

New Zealand journalist Alexi O'Brien this morning described the scene as horrendous. O'Brien is in the Ukraine for Al Jazeera.

Tensions are ramping up between two global super powers after a Malaysia Airlines passenger flight was shot down over Ukraine.

Scenes of horror, with crumpled corpses and body parts strewn amid the smouldering wreckage, greeted local villagers and pro-Russian rebels who were first on the crash site.

A fate as horrific as that of the 298 people on board Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 invites a thorough rethinking of a number of cherished notions.

"We have every expectation our son will be getting off a plane in Wellington tomorrow," says Wendy Ayley, mother of Otaki man Robert Ayley, who was on flight MH17.

Crash victim Shane Summerfield has been in “unbearable pain” since losing half his family, he told a court today.

Shane Summerfield is still "miles away" from being able to speak about the crash in which a Dutch driver ran a stop sign and killed his wife and daughter.

A special forces soldier who tumbled to his death on NZ's deadliest mountain yesterday was "unlucky", as snow and ice gave way to a deep crevasse, a rescuer says.

A Napier truck driver negotiating the steep Otira Viaduct for the first time probably experienced brake failure, a coroner has ruled.

Just over two months ago, a battered Phoenix Ruddell lay in an induced coma at Starship Hospital with injuries so serious that doctors expected a long road back to recovery.

Motocross rider Todd Mullinder is alive today because he had emergency surgery on the back of a ute.

An inquest in Gloucester has heard how a plane crash that killed a British pilot in the Congo may have been caused by passengers panicking over an escaped crocodile.

As the parents of Jordan Kemp raced to hospital, they assured themselves the teen couldn't die from a rugby injury.

The family of New Zealand's top wakeboarder have been told he is a quadriplegic after a devastating accident - but remain hopeful that he will defy the odds.

Hundreds gathered in stormy weather to say haere ra to a young Northland rugby player - four days after he died from a head injury he suffered while playing for his club.

Everyone needs good neighbours - and Kevin Walker's got the best. He is alive only because Sam Woolford gave him CPR for 10 minutes after he went into cardiac arrest.

A man who fell from his ladder onto a rockery and was given painkillers by the local medical centre, died two days later of internal injuries, a coroner has found.

Labour is proposing a sweeping overhaul of New Zealand's disaster insurance regime including shifting EQC levies from insurance premiums

The daughter of a cyclist killed after being hit by a courier van on Monday said her mother was "very safety conscious" and would be "incredibly missed".