A Wellington coroner has recommended a local church overhaul its carpark layout after a second child was killed in the L-shaped lot.

Christchurch's Boxing Day aftershocks and the recent wet weather have seen more than 1000 claims lodged with the Earthquake Commission.

A 19-year-old man has been arrested after a string of aggravated robberies at Lower Hutt shops this morning.

A post-mortem has found a teen whose body was found in a Wainuiomata creek last night drowned.

Police are treating the death of a teenager whose body was found in a creek in Wainuiomata as unexplained.

Injured motorcyclists were airlifted to hospitals in two separate incidents in the lower North Island today.

A post-mortem examination will today be carried out on the body of a young man found dead near a Hutt Valley stream.

Slips and surface flooding are causing havoc for motorists in the lower North Island as heavy rain and gale force winds sweep the region.

Standing on snakes and having trees fall on him are all in a day's work for the archaeologist who's been called Auckland's Indiana Jones.

The first employment case brought to court under 90-day trial laws has gone in favour of a dismissed pharmacy employee.

A machete-wielding man was shot with a Taser stun gun after threatening police in Lower Hutt last night.

Alarming administration errors led to confusion over which of an elderly woman's legs needed surgery and her being sent home, dying days later.