A 56-year-old woman who spent a traumatic 14 hours trapped inside a lift "drew pictures and wrote poems" to keep herself calm.

Three people have been pulled out of the water in Raglan, after their boat overturned on the bar.

A Rotorua woman has been winched out of the Whakarewarewa Forest after a serious mountain bike accident.

Fire services have extinguished a grass fire in Onehunga which had consumed around 20 square metres of land.

A gas main has ruptured, closing a road in the Auckland suburb of St Johns.

Emergency services were called to the blaze at Carlucci Land in Happy Valley about 5pm.

One man is dead and another is in custody following a suspected homicide just north of Whangarei tonight.

One person was seriously injured this evening in a crash north of Wellington that closed the busy road in and out of the capital.

Two kayakers stuck in the mud in Waitemata Harbour - one up to his waist - have been rescued by a helicopter winching them to safety.

Searchers will return to the Waikato River at Taupo this morning after a man disappeared while swimming last night.

There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the sudden death of a man despite initial reports of a neighbour claiming she heard someone yelling "I killed him".

A teenager is in hospital with critical head injuries, after falling off a cliff on Auckland's North Shore.

An unconscious man has been found in a critical condition in Auckland Domain overnight.

Wellington Police Inspector Marty Parker said the blaze had left buses damaged in the public bus company's fleet.

An electrical contractor has died at an egg farm in Masterton.

A factory building on Hobill Ave, Wiri is well ablaze according to the Fire Service.

Onlooker at long weekend display at wharf says a pontoon site might have avoided injuries.

Wellington's cutest and smallest firefighter called his favourite fireman when he saw smoke billowing out from a waterfront cafe.

A top Auckland restaurant will be closed for four weeks after a fire ripped through it early this morning.

A 17-year-old Taupo man was taken by helicopter to hospital today after almost drowning in the sea.

A tourist bus with 20 people on board has crashed north of Auckland.

The toddler is believed to have been climbing on the TV when it fell on her at her home in Dannevirke this afternoon.

Shaun Harris is fighting for his life after a major crash during a race event in Timaru.

The body of a man has been recovered from a river in Nelson this morning.

A man's throat was cut while he was using a grinder on a Waikato farm this afternoon.

An 81-year-old Whanganui man was unable to move after falling while going to the toilet and becoming jammed against the toilet door.

A young boy has died after falling off a bike into the path of a milk tanker at Maungaturoto this morning.

A massive fire that gutted a popular Hamilton restaurant was caused by a stack of hot tea towels spontaneously combusting.

Two helicopters are battling a scrub fire at Pouto, a remote location North of Auckland.

A woman hit by a car last night on Tamaki Drive in Auckland central is still in hospital but no longer in a critical condition, police say.