Sauce is more than tomato ketchup these day, and the Hawkes Bay region is home to a burgeoning hotbed of condiment producers.

"I was going to have to live with myself if he burnt to death," officer Michael O'Leary told an inquest.

The extent of the damage across flood-stricken Otago is starting to become apparent as swollen rivers recede.

The rain has stopped falling in flood stricken Otago and Hawkes Bay, but the regions face a big, expensive cleanup.

Nine tourists have been stranded by floodwaters on State Highway 1 north of Oamaru after failing to observe warning signs earlier today.

Napier police are hunting a "skinny" Maori man wearing dark pants and a blue hoodie after a dairy owner was stabbed this morning.

A farmer says he will shoot poachers' dogs after seeing too many savaged livestock caused by illegal hunters on private farms.

Maka Renata, a sex offender who was coached to stalk and rape by his uncle is on the run after breaching his parole conditions a second time.

Two men are lucky to be alive after missing explosive gel and a box of detonators by half an inch while ploughing with a rotary hoe.

Bar patrons took a drunk man outside because they thought he was about to vomit, not realising he was choking on a pie, the coroner has found.