Kaitaia-based Highway Patrol constable Darren Critchley thought his working day was over at four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon but it was only just beginning...

Firefighters are working in warm conditions to douse the fire at Te Hauke, south of Hastings.

A chemical leak which closed part of Napier Port earlier today has now been contained.

Residents who were evacuated this afternoon have been allowed to return to their homes tonight.

A van has leaked battery acid over the Southern Motorway in Auckland.

The tight-knit family-owned workplace is today grieving for the loss of two valued colleagues and friends.

The father of George Anderson, whose body was removed from rural Hangaroa yesterday afternoon, was also a pilot.

BY Kiri GillespieA yacht has become stranded on a sandbank in Tauranga Harbour, near Pilot Bay. Photo/John Borren 121216jb04bop. A

A man and two female friends were lucky to all return to shore relatively unscathed after getting into trouble in choppy seas about a kilometre off Napier port.

A 500sqm vegetation fire near Uretiti Beach DOC campsite, just south of Ruakaka has been contained.

A 23-year-old Takapuna woman has been identified as the Kiwi who died when a Contiki minivan crashed off a cliff in South Lombok.

Police have confirmed a 19-year-old man has died while swimming in Kawarau River on Saturday.

An emergency beacon has mysteriously gone off a year after search teams recovered the bodies of its owners from Aoraki/Mt Cook.

Police are at a serious car crash on Dairy Flat Highway where three people have been hurt.

Two children suffered minor injuries after the school bus they were on collided with a van on State Highway One north of Auckland.

A woman was impaled on a fence post outside an Eden Terrace bar on Wednesday night. She was impaled by the leg near Galbraith's Alehouse

At least 10 people have been hurt, one critically and three seriously, after five serious crashes on Waikato and Bay of Plenty roads today.

A car has gone into the Waipawa River in central Hawke's Bay.

The family of the man arrested over the stabbing of French tourist in Australia's Northern Territory are distraught, as the victim's wife is released from hospital.

Six fire crews are battling a "well involved" Nelson house fire and searching the property to see if anyone is inside.

A Wairarapa woman who died of injuries suffered while trying to rescue her cat from a cabbage tree had been stuck in its branches for up to two hours.

A woman in her 40s is fighting for her life after she was hit by a truck at Turua near Thames.

Police have today pulled a body from the Takaka River - that of missing man James Rano Dick, known locally as Hemi.

A feline passenger in a car which crashed in the Buller Gorge this morning ended up going to hospital by ambulance with its owner.

A truck and car were involved in a serious accident north of Christchurch this morning.

A fellow boatie said he had laid complaints about skipper Bill McNatty's competence.

Central Hawke's Bay College is on lockdown due to the threat of toxic smoke from a fire at the derelict Waipukurau Hospital's nurses' quarters.

Naked, with two lifejackets pinned under each arm, Iripa Iripa crawled up Muriwai Beach.

A survivor of the Kaipara Harbour disaster was too big for the lifejackets, and desperately clung to the flotation devices while he swam to shore badly injured.

Police have suspended the search for the man still missing from yesterday's Kaipara Harbour tragedy until 5.30am tomorrow, because