Shopping centres were packed with shoppers today as the scramble to buy last-minute Christmas presents intensifies.

People using Park and Ride have been pinged for more than $1 million in fines in the past five years.

Albany ward, like much of Auckland, is growing. But that change comes with worries.

Advertisements are being placed at supermarkets by people wanting to live in cars seeking "driveway and shower" arrangements.

Police have arrested a man on the run for two weeks after an alleged family violence incident on the North Shore where a woman was seriously assaulted.

The patient is said to have suffered moderate injuries.

Friday was the anniversary of the day Heidi Welaman died on a quiet street in Albany after allegedly being stabbed by her estranged husband.

Police are examining the involvement of a businessman who is under investigation for alleged money laundering in a $50 million Albany housing project

A construction worker seeking cover in a portacom during an Auckland tornado died when the wind funnel hurled the structure through the air, a coroner has found.

Shops and entertainment are a stroll from this quality 800-apartment development, finds Sandra Goodwin

Watercare is pumping water from tankers into water pipes for almost 600 elderly people in two retirement villages and a hospital affected by a general water outage in the Albany area.

Watercare says water will not be fully restored in Albany until tomorrow morning at the earliest.

A burst water main has left a number of homes and businesses, including the Westfield Mall in Albany, without water on Auckland's North Shore this evening.

The people of Albany, a suburb of Auckland's North Shore given over largely to big box retailers and franchise universities, was surprised on Saturday night when a Super Rugby match broke out at North Harbour Stadium.

An 18-year-old put himself and his family at risk as armed police swooped on his Auckland home, after he allegedly waved a replica gun around while driving.

A fire at a childcare centre on Auckland's North Shore early this morning is being treated as suspicious.

A man believed to be behind a sophisticated cannabis-growing operation was oblivious to a police raid at his warehouse - until he walked right into it.

Police have uncovered a major cannabis cultivating operation in an Auckland industrial area and say the plants could have fetched up to $1 million.

Auckland's universities are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on new buildings, transforming not only their campuses but the shape of the city they serve.