Public health officers are warning parents to closely watch children - and look out for toxic sea slugs - on Hauraki Gulf beaches.

Publicans in suburban Auckland reckon the city council should leave the running of neighbourhood bars to the locals.

Trained security guards will be posted outside top Auckland restaurants under planned city council liquor law changes.

Hundreds of Auckland bars and restaurants will be forced to close at 11pm under planned city council liquor law changes.

Traces of the rat poison, Brodifacoum, have been found in two little blue penguins that died in the Hauraki Gulf.

The right to camp out by the beach and sleep to the sound of the surf is being banned in one of the North Island's top holiday spots.