New Zealand is now experiencing the worst of the fire season, a top officer says, with a dangerous combination of high temperatures and low relative humidity creating tinder-dry conditions across eastern hot-spots.
He carried the All Blacks to two world titles, now Richie McCaw is flying people around two huge Port Hills fires.
Photos from inside the cordon captured by The Christchurch Star photographers.
With a fire scarred home behind them, a Christchurch couple contemplate how close they were to losing their home.
It's a long, hot slog fighting a fire as big and complex as the one in the Hawke's Bay in the blazing heat. But it's also satisfying work.
More than a dozen helicopters, a plane and 100 firefighters continue to battle two massive Canterbury wildfires, but blazes in Hawke's Bay are now largely contained.
High winds to bring more misery to fire crews fighting bush blazes today, but no rain where it is needed.
One local resident described the terrifying moment when flames came right up to his family home on Waimarama Rd yesterday. Hawke's
Unison restored power to about 700 customers last night after it was cut during the blaze along Waimarama Rd. Unison relationship
The Airways Radar is also under threat from one of the two major bush fires burning near Christchurch.
Two bus-loads of school children are among those who have been escorted out of a Hawke's Bay fire zone, as several large fires burn throughout the district.
Tensions rose near the end of day one into an inquest into the deaths of three young Hamilton people after one of the witnesses changed his evidence.
NOT SUSPICIOUS: Fire investigators have revealed the fire at St John's Church last week was not suspicious. PHOTO/FILE A_080217bf20.JPG The
A state of emergency has been declared in the Hastings District as emergency services battle several fires across the area. Made with funding from NZ On Air.
Riots have broken out in France after a black man was sexually assaulted by police - who claim it was an accident.
A home in Luggate was well ablaze by the time firefighters arrived at the property.
A bush fire near a Taupo native forest is well under control but it will take crews another few days to make sure it's completely out.
A man suffered serious burns after his campervan exploded in Taupo last night.
Two serious house fires have broken out in the North Island.
A large bushfire is blazing through forest and scrub northwest of Taupo.
Police have named the person who died in a shed fire in Christchurch on Thursday as 51-year-old Savita Devi Naidu.
The man who spent two hours trapped in a dam by an excavator has described how he survived in an emotional interview on the Today show.
A passenger aboard a cruise ship on which a crew member died has recounted the harrowing scenes which followed the incident. WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT.
A small fire near the railway line between Parnell and Newmarket brought some Auckland trains a halt and caused delays for commuters
A person is dead after a shed fire in Christchurch this morning.
It appears that the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 fiasco is not over yet. A "minor fire" broke out at the factory that manufactures the malicious
Heartbreak in church community after devastating Rotorua fire.
A man was up to his nose in water after his excavator rolled into a dam and trapped him there for two hours.
Pollution experts are being called in to deal with sticky residue left in water used to fight a major fire.
Firefighters are battling a blaze that has broken out at Airborne Honey in Christchurch.
A fire that destroyed a house and car in West Auckland overnight is believed to be suspicious.
A community fundraiser for an 11-year-old girl orphaned by a fatal east Auckland house fire drew hundreds, organisers say.
Three people are treated for smoke inhalation after fire engulfs a home.