West Coast police today advised motorists to take extra care when driving through the Lewis Pass and Maruia Valley on SH7 and SH65 as traffic numbers build up.

Critics of proposed link between West Coast and Milford Sound say $250 million costing should be more like $2 billion.

Attempts are being made to capture a flock of kea in Haast, after one was found to be suffering from lead poisoning.

Feathers fly after native birds damage vehicles and property in Haast - even the police 4x4 was attacked.

The community of Haast's sole police officer was assaulted and his car damaged before he was able to taser a man.

A woman has died in a car crash on wintry roads in the Haast Pass this morning.

The death of two tourists whose campervan was swept away in a slip was the result of a "tragic coming together of a number of events", a coroner has found.

A distinguished mathematician who died when his car crashed off a bridge in south Westland probably fell asleep at the wheel, a coroner has found.

It was every parent's worst nightmare; news their child has died while travelling on the other side of the world, their rented campervan swept off the road during a powerful storm.

A young Canadian couple were killed when their campervan was swept off the road by the second landslide to hit the road they were on, an inquest has ruled.

State Highway 6 through the Haast Pass was closed temporarily yesterday because of an earthquake.

Tourists planning on using State Highway 6 through Haast Pass are being urged to factor time into their travel plans.

A 55-year-old man has died in a motorbike accident on the Haast Pass this afternoon, the second motorcyclist death this week on the same stretch of highway.

Extended opening hours through the Haast Pass from tomorrow should ease the frustration of locals and tourism operators.

A pair of US tourists had to be rescued by a police search and rescue team after becoming stranded on the banks of the Haast River yesterday afternoon.

They never saw it coming. Even if they had, they could never have survived it.

The boulder, measuring about 10m by 10m, crashed onto the road about 1km west of Clarke's Bluff, said NZTA senior asset West Coast manager Mark Pinner.

It's like a time-machine trip, writes Elisabeth Easther.

An 11-year-old boy who ran 6km in the dark to get help for his dad after a car crash will be protected from reading a coroner's comments that praise his heroic actions.

A Haast man was sentenced to nine months' supervision and ordered to pay his former partner $500 for emotional harm after being convicted of an assault.

Members of the public have come forward with new information about the 1969 murder of Welsh hitchhiker Jennifer Beard.