Developers of a controversial multi-million waterfront village have been told "build around me" by a pensioner who owns the lease to land in the middle of the site.

SkyCity is holding all the cards in the latest round of negotiations with the Government over its increasingly expensive convention centre, Labour's Economic Development spokesman David Clark says.

Design improvements, a new five-star hotel and inflation have rocketed up the SkyCity convention centre's pricetag by as much as $130 million.

SkyCity Entertainment Group, the casino and hotel operator, is in talks with the government on how to fund the increased cost of as much as $130 million to build an international convention centre in downtown Auckland.

A wealthy businessman who chained up a woman in his "dungeon" and forced her to perform sex acts has been jailed for 15 years.

Auckland City's public spaces will be transformed into 'fanzones' to allow the public to fully engage with a bumper summer of international events.

The heartbroken mother of a man who died in a car crash while power lines prevented his rescue says she lies awake at night visualising his painful death.

A raft of new policies have been introduced in the wake of a fatal car crash in which a man died in front of rescuers eyes as they waited for power lines to be switched off.

A senior fire fighter was "grasping at straws" as he asked a power company engineer to cut electricity to an Auckland suburb as they tried to reach a dying man.

Fire gutted a home and wrecked two cars in the Auckland street John Key once described as a dead-end place.

Speedway veteran Shayne Alach will captain Team New Zealand in the upcoming World Midget Series at WxC Speedway-Western Springs.

Sarah Ell and her son are awed, charmed and enlightened by a 'movie' at the Observatory.

Voted the Leading Hotel Suite in New Zealand at the 2014 World Travel Awards, once you've settled in you won't want to leave these luxurious lodgings.

For further information see skycityauckland.co.nz.

Tristram Clayton makes like a megastar at a top Auckland address.

A South Auckland man accused over a fatal stabbing last month, where a man was dropped off at a medical centre, can now be named.

A serious crash brought Auckland’s motorway network to its knees with motorists stuck in grid-locked traffic for up to four hours.

A fire broke out at the TVNZ headquarters in central Auckland this morning.

Artistic problems and political bickering are plaguing the $1.5 million "lighthouse" sculpture on Queens Wharf.

An organisation that houses Maori and Pasifika students so they are in zone for Auckland Grammar School will run a similar scheme for a nearby girls' school.

An Auckland grandmother who gambled away nearly $200,000 she stole from her employer will not go to jail.

It has no bedroom, no bathroom and no power - but it's just sold for close to $1.4 million.

Harbour views, sunny spaces, public events and safer, greener places for kids to play could all be part of the Auckland waterfront's future.

Real estate industry experts have labelled the latest residential property revaluations dangerous, with calls for the mass appraisal system to be overhauled or scrapped.

A man is lucky to be alive after he was nearly crushed by a concrete slab at a demolition site this afternoon.

A new $205.4 million urban village with almost a half-hectare shopping precinct and 231 apartments is to rise in an Auckland horse racing club's carpark.

A baby is in a critical condition following a house fire in Mount Wellington this morning.

Shandelle Battersby enjoys a mini-break at a luxury city hotel.