District health boards are making their final preparations for the three-day strike by unionised resident doctors that starts tomorrow morning.

The National Park fire chief has described the scene of this morning's Tongariro National Park bus crash.

A car and a freight train have collided at Matamata in Waikato.

Emergency services were called to the incident on the Otematata-Kurow Rd section of the highway near Lake Aviemore shortly before 4pm.

A fire has broken out in a downtown Auckland tower this afternoon.

Waikato District Health Board is postponing around 500 patients' appointments because of the strike.

A woman is in a critical condition following a near drowning on Auckland's North Shore.

The medical condition was described as being something that "just happens sometimes".

Around 70 firefighters battled a blaze in West Auckland that involved potentially hazardous chemicals.

Three people have died on New Zealand roads so far this weekend, adding to the summer holiday road carnage.

First Union says St John is seeking to finish its bargaining without finalising a collective agreement for employees.

Emergency services are responding to reports of a person found unconscious in water in Northland.

Hundreds of litres of diesel spilled from a truck's fuel tank in a Dome Valley crash this morning.

Police have arrested two people who tried to flee after they crashed their car into a house early this morning.

St John Ambulance officers who ditch their uniforms as part of ongoing strike action will have their pay docked by 10 per cent.

A pedestrian has died after he was struck by a vehicle in Central Otago this evening.

A woman had to be winched from a remote South Island valley after slipping and falling heavily on a steep ridge track.

A man is in critical condition after a two-truck crash in Palmerston North, which has closed the road as freight spilled across both lanes.

Firefighters have cut a woman out of a car after the vehicle crashed in Whanganui.

MEAT THE MAYOR: Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless served up sausages at the waterfront on New Year's Eve. Photo/George Novak 311216gn04bop By

New Year's Eve has got off to a disastrous start to two people who were injured in a dune buggy crash in Northland this evening.

Traffic on most main highways should be easing within the next hour or so after heavy congestion yesterday and earlier today.

Party-goers who attended an unauthorised event on Lake Wanaka's Ruby Island claim safety was paramount.

Uncle tells of the moment he found his 4-year-old autistic nephew floating in his neighbour's pool.

A father performed CPR on his son while waiting for emergency services, after the boy was found in a swimming pool.

Morgan Tait talks to emergency staff about crashes in which people are injured and sometimes killed.

Fire crews remained on watch last night near the remains of a forest blaze near Dunedin.

The fire on Signal Hill in Dunedin has been contained, but about 40 firefighters and three helicopters are continuing to fight the blaze.

Three young teenagers died in a high-speed car crash when their vehicle, driven by a 14-year-old, slammed into a tree.

A teen killed alongside two young friends in a "preventable" early morning crash has been remembered in an emotional tribute urging other drivers to take care.