A three-year-old boy is in critical condition following a hit-and-run in South Auckland this morning.

New Zealand labour costs rose in the final three months of 2012 as the gathering pace of Canterbury's reconstruction effort saw the building and construction sector underpin gains.

Police are investigating a series of rural mail thefts in North Canterbury after a $100 cheque intended as a donation to a charity was cashed for more than $10,000.

Expert earthquake engineers will be trained in Christchurch to help with the $30 billion rebuild, it was announced today.

Justine Tyerman finds one of the only flattish walks in the Aoraki-Mt Cook National Park - even Japanese ladies in high heels and Aussies in jandals can manage the Hooker Valley track.

Farmers and landowners of "tinderbox dry" land on the outskirts of Christchurch should soon receive a reprieve with rain due to sweep in tomorrow.

Photos of the aftermath as scrub fires destroyed cars, farms and properties near Prebbleton in Christchurch.

A twenty-year-old who was missing for 24 hours on a mountain battered by severe storms has been found "walking, talking and cold", police say.

The aftershocks have all but stopped, but few in Christchurch dare mention the easing of the earth's fury.

Brian Fallow writes: "The economy has a soggier soft patch to pull out of next year after September quarter gross domestic product came in below market expectations and the statisticians revised down growth in the first half of the year."

Fletcher Construction was fined $45,000 today for a health and safety breach while workers pulled down Christchurch's quake-battered Hotel Grand Chancellor.

A 15-year-old Christchurch schoolboy drowned when his family misread a sign, assuming that because it showed a person swimming it meant the river was safe.

A High Court order enforcing the exhumation of a Christchurch man's body might be needed to finally return his body to his partner, after it was taken to Bay of Plenty.