This year has seen dizzying highs, devastating lows, Mother Nature at her most furious, a mesmerising court case and panic as Marmite production ceased.

Fatal accidents, breakdowns and huge traffic backlogs have plagued the first four days of the official Christmas road toll period.

The horrific Boxing Day death of a 16-year-old boy from South Otago is the year's seventh quad bike fatality.

Two cars have been involved in a serious crash south of Gisborne.

A newborn baby was taken to hospital after a head-on crash. Firefighters had to winch the family's car off a road barrier and wedge the passenger door open to free her.

A 16-year-old boy has died following a motorbike crash in Southland last night.

An MP has demanded ACC explain why it has more than halved overseas care payments to a British woman whose daughter was left severely disabled after a New Zealand medical misadventure.

We demand and expect our transport systems to to get us where we want, when we want to be there, and as fast as possible. We are, however, human beings.

Heavy lifting cranes are on their way to the scene of a milk tanker crash that is blocking State Highway 3 in the lower North Island.

A young man has been killed following a serious car crash in Southland this morning.

You could forgive Shiu Narayan if the word "insurance" tasted sour in his mouth this morning.

A woman on a suspended driver's licence allegedly fled the scene of a crash which killed a 71-year-old woman who was travelling with her family on Christmas Day.

The Christmas Eve death of a toddler in a tragic driveway accident has left a tiny lakeside village reeling.

Kim Dotcom and a spate of natural disasters have been among the most popular topics with New Zealand Herald readers this year.

Seven months ago their lives were a happy chaos as they raised energetic and vibrant triplets Lillie, Jackson and Willsher.

A man watched in horror as his brother drowned in stormy surf at Whiritoa beach on the Coromandel Peninsula on Christmas Eve.

A coroner has recommended that boaties should be warned about the dangers of smoking cannabis.

Staff at TV3 are in grief over the loss of a popular colleague and young mother, who was killed in a car crash that also seriously injured her two young daughters.

A toddler swallowed 20 small but super-strong toy magnets - then spent seven weeks in pain as they gripped each other and eventually punctured his bowel.

A Bay of Plenty mother says parents need to be aware of potential danger associated with alloy wheels after her 16-month-old daughter suffered serious burns.

Early on the morning of May 12, 8-year-old Michelle O'Brien showed humanity, kindness, and selfless bravery when faced with the unthinkable.

Four farmhands who died in a horrific early morning crash were not wearing seatbelts and three were thrown from the "unsafe" vehicle when its roof was torn off.

A grandmother who pulled a young family from a crashed car moments before it burst into flames says she was "in the right place at the right time".