COMMENT: A year after the earthquake, I stood outside the old chicken wire fence and stared in. All you could hear was the easterly.

A free service has been set up to ease the Christmas shopping horror.

A young Christchurch builder allegedly sacked via text didn't tell his family and for a week pretended to go to work every morning.

New 3D fly-through footage of the Kaikoura coastline is being used to assess key areas of damage.

Repairs to South Island stopbanks damaged in the Kaikōura earthquake is expected to cost nearly $700,000.

A Christchurch man who committed a series of sexual offences, including rapes, at ''raves'' in several parts of the South Island has had his sentence reduced.

A huge new body of water on their property wasn't part of their plan, but these North Canterbury farmers want to make hay while the sun shines.

A licence to fish for whitebait, much like the Fish and Game sports fishing licence, has been suggested as one way of managing the fishery.

A new report has found it would cost more than $250million to repair Christchurch's earthquake-battered Lancaster Park.

Fewer than half of councils have enough staff trained to respond to marine oil spills.

Parts of the North Island are expected to hit 30 degrees today, with Hawke's Bay getting the biggest dose of the sun's rays.

Canterbury's Highway Patrol is reminding motorists to drive with caution while the Lewis Pass alternate highway (State Highway 7)

Patched members and associates of the Head Hunters gang arrested in a series of armed raids across Christchurch this morning have appeared in court.

A new satellite-based tool published by Landcare Research has provided one of the clearest views yet of what changes last month's 7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake wrought on the landscape.

The Head Hunters members were charged with offences ranging from participation in an organised crime group to supplying the class-A controlled drug methamphetamine.

Nearly a dozen dams formed by landslides in the devastating Kaikoura quake are being closely monitored for fear of collapsing.

Waikato DHB breached national targets in October and November for the number of patients waiting too long to see a specialist.

Motorists travelling the alternative route between Christchurch and Picton have been caught up in heavy congestion today, as traffic pressure mounts on the post-quake thoroughfare.

According to Tamaki, Harry Potter is a tool to recruit people toward evil.

From Monday milk tankers and other essential freight will be given access in and out of Kaikoura.

The more porn a man watches, the less sexually intimate he is with his female partner, a new study suggests.

The second man to walk on the moon has been evacuated from Antarctica to New Zealand suffering respiratory problems.

In a meeting with residents last night, Civil Defence staff confirmed two thirds of the village can't return to their homes just yet.

A second baby blue penguin has been welcomed to Picton's EcoWorld.

Govt says a public message about unusual seismic activity under the North Island was not a cause for alarm.

A message from Pope Francis will be delivered this weekend to Kiwis affected by last month's Kaikoura earthquake.

A Christchurch builder who shone a laser pointer at an international passenger jet carrying 121 passengers, dazzling flight crew, has today been jailed for 10 weeks.

Nicole Smith has been found safe on a rural road west of Timaru.

The Kaikoura Earthquake will cost the Government up to $3 billion, the Treasury estimates.

Primary school children in earthquake-hit Kaikoura returned to school and a sense of normality today.