What caused a Hororata pilot to fly his glider into the side of a mountain near Omarama in a fatal crash in January last year may never be definitively known.

Homeowners could have to pay more in Fire Service levies under a proposed shake-up of the way the service is funded.

A 2011 plane crash landing could have been avoided if the pilots were taught how hard to pull a landing gear lever, a report has found.

A large scrub fire that endangered buildings in Taupo yesterday has been extinguished.

A scrub fire in Taupo which endangered buildings in the area this afternoon appears to have been deliberately lit.

Police have released the name of the man killed in a crash near Kaiapoi on Friday.

A teenager has died after being shot with an airgun he and four friends were playing with while they were drinking at a Manurewa home last night.

Three divers needed rescuing after drifting out to sea on an inflatable boat without lifejackets, a radio, cellphones or an anchor.

Almost $10,000 worth of specialist tools and 10kg of copper cabling has been stolen from the hangar used by the organisation behind the Northland Electricity rescue helicopter.

A fisherman who died after being swept down the Motu River has been identified as 41-year-old Benjamin Robert Tekira from Waimana, near Whakatane.

Two 15-year-old girls are being hailed as heroes after going to the rescue of men caught in a rip and near drowning at a Northland beach.

An unconscious 61-year-old diabetic man was believed to have been lying on a Dunedin park bench for a day and a night before he died.

The body of a 41-year-old man was found last night after he was swept away while trying to cross an East Coast river earlier in the day.

The body of a man has been found, hours after he was swept away at the Motu rivermouth near Whakatane today.

Holidaymakers driving home have been urged by police to "take it easy'' on the roads and plan the return journey to ensure they get home in one piece.

Six friends found a 25-year-old Hawke's Bay man, soaking wet, comatose and rigid on Waimarama Beach, following New Year's Eve celebrations.

Neighbours say the 42-year-old was burned in her Whakatu house, 5km north of Hastings, after a day-long domestic dispute on Christmas Day.

Fatal accidents, breakdowns and huge traffic backlogs have plagued the first four days of the official Christmas road toll period.

Neighbours heard screams that "somebody was on fire" before emergency services discovered a badly burned couple on Christmas Day.