A warm, sunny week is expected across the North Island before the weather takes a turn for the worse on Friday.

An Air New Zealand flight was forced to turn around after striking a bird this morning.

Police executed the search warrants in an effort to reduce social harm from drugs.

They helped raise more than $2 million to help secure a part of the Abel Tasman for the public.

The brother of a woman saved from Harwoods Hole has opened up on the tense wait.

Families who have lost loved ones in crashes involving foreign drivers horrified at two more deaths.

American tourist faces serious driving charges after two killed on a South Island highway.

One of two people who died in yesterday's three-vehicle crash near Nelson was a local.

Multiple passengers have reportedly been critically hurt, with two dead, in a three-vehicle crash.

Burglars help thems-elves in Lord of the Rings jeweller break-in.

An online car dealer who took deposits but failed to supply cars to at least 16 people has now paid refunds to at least three complainants.

DoC staff were tonight monitoring a pod of about 200 pilot whales milling around in the sea off Golden Bay.

Hundreds of volunteers last night kept a vigil over 120 whales restranded on Farewell Spit near Golden Bay.

Twenty pilot whales have beached themselves again and will be euthanised, DoC said, as volunteers are warned to be careful around decomposing whales.

All 100 of the surviving beached whales at Farewell Spit have been successfully refloated as volunteers scrambled to stop another pod swimming into shore.

Emotional scenes as whale rescue volunteers sang to and even named many of the pilot whales stranded - and those refloated - on Farewell Spit.

Volunteers desperately trying to save 100 surviving whales that have beached on Farewell Spit are being warned about the risk of sharks in the water.

Police say they have concerns for an elderly Nelson man who was due to arrive in Westport today, but has not been seen. Leslie Martin

A new, Opposition-led inquiry into the state of aged care in New Zealand kicks off tomorrow.

Police are worried about a Motueka man who goes by the name Friar, who has not been heard from for four days.

A man has been flown to hospital with multi-trauma injuries after his car collided with the back of a truck near Nelson this morning. It's

The elderly man who died at a Nelson beach on Monday evening despite attempts to rescue him has been named.

South Island police are concerned for the wellbeing of two missing people and ask anyone with information to contact them.

See which region isn't afraid to whinge when they've had a gutsful with roadworks.

More than 20,000 students asked for an emergency derived grade following the Kaikoura earthquake.

Residents in parts of the country have been warned to brace for widespread flooding, slips and fast-rising rivers as the mid-week weather system hits.

Residents in parts of the country have been warned to brace for widespread flooding, slips and fast-rising rivers as a power-packed, mid-week weather system hits.

The Kaikoura earthquake badly hit tourism spending in the region but national figures are brighter.

Big swells predicted to surge up the eastern side of New Zealand from Kaikoura to north of Mahia Peninsula

A knife-wielding man wearing a balaclava tried to steal cigarettes and cash from a Nelson service station this morning.