Police say 14 primary school students were very, very lucky, after their school bus slammed into a concrete power pole near Dannevirke.

One New Plymouth family were gifted a trampoline after high winds blew it into their property.

The Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter airlifted the man, who has sustained head injuries, to Palmerston North Hospital.

Police are investigating a suspicious fire in Dannevirke about 11pm yesterday.

Windows exploded as a Dannevirke woman and three young children ran from a blazing home with flames licking at their backs.

Elisabeth Easther explores this picturesque town's rich history.

Plaugues of rats are chewing and gnawing their way around rural Tararua, chomping on wiring in vehicles.

One person has died in a house fire in Pongaroa, south of Dannevirke overnight. Fire services found it well alight on arrival.

A Dannevirke family have been left with nothing after a suspicious fire destroyed their rural home on Saturday night.

Dannevirke's reputation as one of New Zealand's luckiest Lotto towns has been cemented by a $14.1 million Big Wednesday win.

A 25-year-old soldier was injured after falling 5 metres into a dry riverbed near Dannevirke.

Canadian oil company Apache has been talking up the prospects for onshore oil finds on the North Island's East Coast and is trying to play concerns about fracking and the local environment.

A Dannevirke man has been told by a local health board his stomach pain may have been caused by a hysterectomy - the surgical removal of a woman's uterus.