A tourist driver who arrived from Australia early in the morning and hired a rental car, fell asleep at the wheel - causing a head-on crash that killed his mother.

A mother whose 12-year-old daughter died in a triple fatal car crash says her personal tragedy showed how tight-knit communities can help people survive extreme trauma.

Iain Rennie made a "miscalculation" in allowing a joint press conference over Roger Sutton's resignation, but he should not stand down, John Key says.

Two people are dead and two others critically and seriously injured after a cluster of car crashes in Canterbury overnight.

This town has big money, great pubs and cottage industries, discovers Elisabeth Easther.

A mother who endured the Canterbury earthquakes and then lost her 12-year-old daughter in a horrific car crash will give a keynote talk about resilience later this month.

Nearly 100 jobs are set to go at Work and Income - but the government says even more new roles will be created.

Three men have been arrested following a Christchurch street brawl in which pot plants, a spade, baseball bat and a metal street sign pole were used as weapons.

A man is dead and three people have been injured in a two-car crash on State Highway 1 in Canterbury.

Abandoned earthquake-damaged homes in Christchurch's residential red zone are being booby-trapped in a mystery that has so far baffled police.

Work and Income's Ashburton clients will be able to meet with clients face to face again when the Ministry of Social Development establishes a new base in a modular building on the Ashburton Police site on Havelock St.