Lake Waikaremoana was a top summer stop-off this season. Made with funding from NZ On Air.

Six inmates were awarded certificates after completing courses at Auckland Prison today.

Two pods of the marine animals were spotted this morning including a mother and her calf

Australian man who spent four days up a kauri denied NZ citizenship.

Survival rates fall from 70 per cent in the 1990s to 45 per cent now.

Rescuer killed by avalanche, John Harrison, was one of New Zealand's top climbers.

Stoats ate almost every chick and egg in a Fiordland crested penguin research project.

The inmate who died at Hawkes Bay Prison on Friday was Kolby Heta.

Our alpine parrot may be much smarter than we think, scientists say.

The homes are between Whangamata and Tairua, areas among the most affected by record-breaking rains.

A three-metre-long Leopard seal has been relaxing at Tutukaka

COMMENT: While those who oppose 1080 will say it's indiscriminate, what's the alternative, asks Rachel Smalley.

Breeding colony of 2000 seals north of Kaikoura at risk as part of SH1 rebuild.

COMMENT: Parks provide essential services from cradle to grave and need to be reserved decades ahead of use.

There are, clearly, mechanisms which could help better manage pressures arising from tourism - and sustain the appeal of our natural assets.

COMMENT: Dame Fiona Kidman's submission to the select committee on Pike River was study in empathy, writes Audrey Young.

The teenager jailed for six years after he stabbed a West Auckland dairy owner to death has been granted regular releases from jail.

DoC staff were tonight monitoring a pod of about 200 pilot whales milling around in the sea off Golden Bay.

Twenty pilot whales have beached themselves again and will be euthanised, DoC said, as volunteers are warned to be careful around decomposing whales.

All 100 of the surviving beached whales at Farewell Spit have been successfully refloated as volunteers scrambled to stop another pod swimming into shore.

Emotional scenes as whale rescue volunteers sang to and even named many of the pilot whales stranded - and those refloated - on Farewell Spit.

Volunteers desperately trying to save 100 surviving whales that have beached on Farewell Spit are being warned about the risk of sharks in the water.

Rescuers who tried to refloat beached whales to return at first light.

A whale rescue expert is critical Department of Conservation crews didn't act sooner in last night's devastating whale stranding.

A fishing boat has run aground off the sensitive Otago coast.

Searchers are poised to go into the Southern Alps for an overdue Israeli tramper.

A plan to bring our national bird back from the brink and super-charge local kiwi conservation efforts is being launched today.

Dunedin's newest celebrity albatross chick could be reunited with its parents as soon as tomorrow.

Five birds protected under the Wildlife Act have been found shot dead near Little Barrier Island.

Search teams elated as DOC worker stumbles across missing tourist.