Malcolm George Chaston has been sentenced to preventive detention for murdering Christchurch woman Vanessa Anne Pickering, whose body was found down a bank near Christchurch's Godley Head more than a year ago.

Snow is falling in the central North Island for the first time this year and strong winds continue to lash both the North and South islands.

An inquiry will hear the distressing final phone calls of a mother and son killed in the Queensland floods.

A failure involving a Telecom communications network vital to air traffic control has delayed flights throughout the upper North Island this afternoon, with some flights remaining grounded as a safety precaution.

Asked to describe his art style, Shanghai-born Dennis Juan Ma says it's "Kiwi-Chinese".

Facial piercings have been approved as part of school uniform at a major New Plymouth high school.