NIWA's latest seasonal outlook predicts temperatures in all regions are likely to be above average from October to December.

Around 800 people fairwelled Sir Archie Taiaroa today before his casket was taken down the Whanganui River to his final resting place.

A witness to the accident in which a truck driver was impaled by a canoe says it was "swinging out on to the oncoming lane like a jousting pole".

The suspension of 15 striking laboratory workers in the North Island this morning was an attempt to intimidate them, their union says.