An 18-year-old man charged over a deadly hit-and-run on Saturday night has been granted bail.

Two years after Christchurch was devastated by its first earthquake, the green shoots of the city’s revival are appearing through the rubble.

The royal commission of inquiry hearings into the Canterbury earthquakes disaster closed today with the chairman giving a final acknowledgment to bereaved families.

The steady life in sales and prices started in the central Auckland suburbs over a year ago and has now spread across the new supercity. But as Bruce Morris reports, it's still tough going out in the provinces.

A family of five had no idea their wooden Canterbury house was well ablaze until a passing friend ran in to alert them.