Wild winds sweeping the country have caused serious disruption to flight schedules, caused power outages and closed roads this evening.

A grassroots rugby team have been accused of making racist remarks about Polynesian rugby players during a local game.

A Waimakariri man who was convicted of a "lengthy and sustained sequence of extraordinarily bad and dangerous driving" was yesterday sentenced in the Greymouth District Court.

Animal cruelty charges against a West Coast man accused of setting a cat on fire have been dismissed.

Searchers looking just north of Hokitika for one of the rarest vertebrate animals in the country have struck gold.

A Christchurch man who tried to sell his employer's car was arrested in Greymouth yesterday.

An apparent taste for corn by a group of tourists travelling through the West Coast in Jucy Rental vehicles has resulted in them being dobbed into police.

Fire chief calls for more training for firefighters who are generally not prepared for the emotions they find when dealing with suicides.

Brad Houston was walking back to halfway after his side scored a try against Cobden-Kohinoor when he dropped to the ground.

The Blaketown pensioner charged with trafficking cocaine into Australia has been told he faces life in prison.

A pensioner arrested in Perth for importing cocaine is a retired West Coast beekeeper who used to sell honey outside the Greymouth library.

A Kiwi pensioner is in a maximum security prison in Western Australia charged with importing cocaine.

A Karamea woman charged with kidnapping and resisting arrest allegedly locked her former husband in a shipping container, a Greymouth District Court jury heard yesterday.

A drunk 14-year-old boy spent the night in the care of the Greymouth police after they found him in a "very intoxicated" state in Cobden.

The family of a Greymouth toddler are relieved after a man was arrested for his murder.

Although a new trial date was yet to be set, Greymouth lawyer Marcus Zintl said it would probably be in early 2016.

Texas-based company has applied to prospect 1.6 million square kilometres offshore of New Zealand - including off the West Coast.

Department of Conservation waits to resume ownership of the Pike River Mine.

A 52-year-old Christchurch man on the run from police after reports of dangerous driving, forced a Westland Milk Products tanker to stop at Dobson on Saturday evening.

A Franz Josef Glacier man yesterday apologised to his partner for the way he treated her as he pleaded guilty to a raft of assault charges.

A man who says he has seen so many bad driving incidents he decided to install a dash-mounted camera, spotted a rental car driving on the wrong side of the road.

Almost six months after the death of 15-month-old Cobden toddler Leith Hutchison, police have yet to wind up an investigation or make an arrest.

"Incendiary devices", namely fireworks, thrown under a campervan parked at Westport's North Beach are not "the welcome mat" the town wants to present to visitors.

West Coast Rugby League captain Adrian Rodney Loe was labelled an "aggressive and unpleasant drunk" by a judge for head-butting a man at the pub.

Donald McKenzie Harcourt appeared for sentence in Greymouth District Court on animal welfare charges, dating back to 2012, relating to his Crooked River farm.

Jason Dale Rowling, 27, was yesterday sentenced in the Greymouth District Court to 200 hours of community work for wilful ill-treatment of an animal.

A District Court judge has slapped down a pending case against KiwiRail over alleged poisonous fumes in a South Island after the state-owned enterprise sought a hearing to dispute some of the facts.