A teenager was found dead after being flung from a Mercedes Benz when it crashed off Te Mata Peak in Hawke's Bay yesterday morning.

A man has died after a car plunged 150m down Te Mata Peak in Hawkes Bay.

Two people who stole a charity donation box from a Hastings petrol station have been described as the "lowest of the low" by police.

A Hawkes Bay family got more than they bargained for when they cracked open an unusually large egg laid by their pet chicken recently - another egg.

The woman alleged to have ruined Kiwis' holidays in Fiji will face trial without her partner after his "untimely death".

Firefighters in Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa are on high alert as the regions brace for forecast strong winds and hot temperatures.

Evidence showing cattle getting into rivers and anecdotal stories of animals being slaughtered next to streams have renewed calls for the introduction of a bylaw to exclude stock from Hawkes Bay's waterways.

The realities of summer are showing in Hawke's Bay as sunburn victims traipsed through medical centres and pharmacies for something to ease the pain.

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.

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

A Hawke's Bay family are upset with the treatment they received from police after an officer smashed their windscreen with his torch at a drink-drive checkpoint.

Rain-starved fruitgrowers in the Hawke's Bay say they're willing to breach water restrictions in a desperate attempt to save their crops.

A man whose catamaran flipped off a Hawkes Bay beach in rough conditions was fortunate to be spotted by onshore observers, police say.

A Hastings teen is being hailed a hero after jumping a 3-metre fence, dragging a sleeping man from his bed and extinguishing a flaming frying pan.

Four farmhands who died in a horrific early morning crash were not wearing seatbelts and three were thrown from the "unsafe" vehicle when its roof was torn off.

A one metre shark gave swimmers a scare at a Hawke's Bay beach yesterday.