The home of sunshine has a lot of activities to offer away from the usual charms of beach and blue sky, writes Julie Haines.

A Hastings primary school is in lockdown, with pupils told to stay indoors, as police search for a gunman in the area.

"It was horrible, I've never seen so much blood." Two women have described rushing to help a boatie who was deeply cut in the groin by a propeller.

A strong quake has shaken the lower east coast of the North Island this morning.

A 17-year-old boy was airlifted to hospital after suffering multiple injuries in a crash in the Hawkes Bay this morning.

An elderly bus driver was jailed today after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting girls on his bus.

Flaxmere streaker Rose Kupa says she's knocked off one task on her bucket list, but the All Blacks are not impressed.

New Zealand's best produce is world class and a first-rate reason to travel, writes Nadia Lim.

A young Hastings woman has been found not guilty of fatally stabbing her boyfriend.

A judge has told a mother caught driving with seven unrestrained children that she did something "a large number of families would do" thirty years ago.

About 100 riders from the Patriots Defence Force Motorcycle Club will converge on Napier today to remember a soldier killed in Afghanistan.

A young man has died after his car hit a power pole in Hawke's Bay overnight.

A crash this year which caused the death of an unborn child and multiple injuries to others has been described as a "complete tragedy" by a judge.

A Napier family is reeling after a man allegedly entered their home and attacked the father with a hammer.

Police are investigating why two men separately drove themselves to a Napier clinic with serious injuries overnight, one with stab wounds to the head.

A Hastings woman who died following an overdose made two calls to emergency helplines that went unanswered before her death.

A Hawke’s Bay builder who accidently shot himself in the chest with a nail gun pulled out the nail himself and walked onto a rescue helicopter, but later died.

Police are looking for a man who assaulted a 16-year-old girl in her Napier home last night.

A Hawke's Bay man who shot himself in the chest with a nail gun yesterday has died.

A man charged with dangerous driving causing the death of a pet dog worries he will face undue "pressure" and scrutiny from his small seaside community, his lawyer says.

A 46-year-old woman who died after her motorcycle and an oncoming car collided near Napier has been described by a close friend as a "special, true and powerful woman".

A 55-year-old man, described as a "serial fraudster" has been sentenced for impersonating a lawyer and now holds 184 convictions, including impersonating a pilot.

The long-haired schoolboy who was suspended for refusing to cut his locks has won a High Court battle to keep his long hair.