Photos from inside the cordon captured by The Christchurch Star photographers.

With a fire scarred home behind them, a Christchurch couple contemplate how close they were to losing their home.

A Canadian cruise ship passenger and "self-made man'' was in Dunedin for the day when he was knocked from his bicycle in front of his shocked wife and began a battle for his life.

The woman killed in a head-on crash near Queenstown yesterday was a 49-year-old Australian, police say.

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

One person had died and three are seriously injured after a crash at Arrow Junction near the Crown Range turnoff.

Heavy rain and hail hit Dunedin this afternoon, causing the evacuation of the public library and flooding to some buildings.

It's a question summer-deprived Wellingtonians couldn't be blamed for asking: Why is Australia sweltering in a heat wave while their own city hasn't broken 25C all season?

A body has been discovered in North Hagley Park in Christchurch this morning.

A home in Luggate was well ablaze by the time firefighters arrived at the property.

Weary passengers forced to wait even longer after plane to Auckland is delayed yet again.

People are being warned to stay off a beach where the carcasses of hundreds of whales are at risk of exploding.

The shallow, snaking, braided channels of Canterbury's Waimakariri River - and the heavily-developed pastureland around it - have been captured by a NASA satellite.

Scientists have ruled out any suggestion this morning's 5.2 quake was linked to the mass whale stranding at Farewell Spit.

Police have named the person who died in a shed fire in Christchurch on Thursday as 51-year-old Savita Devi Naidu.

A woman was injured after the car she was driving hit a parked car and then "burst into the lounge'' of a Dunedin house today.

A cyclist sustained a serious head injury after being hit by a campervan in Dunedin today. A St John spokesman said an ambulance

A garage owner has defended displaying the Confederate flag after a Dunedin woman took to social media to register her shock at seeing it.

EXCLUSIVE: Shelley Crooks has broken her silence on her miracle, six-week survival in the rugged West Coast bush.

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

Two children have narrowly avoided injury after almost being struck by a train this evening.

Hope for survivors of one of NZ's largest ever whale strandings is "slowly slipping away".

TVNZ confirmed this week season two of Coast New Zealand was currently in production.

A whale rescue expert is critical Department of Conservation crews didn't act sooner in last night's devastating whale stranding.

A passenger aboard a cruise ship on which a crew member died has recounted the harrowing scenes which followed the incident. WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT.

The Government now says its rheumatic fever target might not be met until next year or even mid-2019.

A drug user went to the police after swapping his car for rock salt.

The report into the effectiveness of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority is unbalanced and misses the point, Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

Twenty-nine figures stood in silence on the Pike River Mine access road this morning - each decked out in overalls, work boots, miner's helmets and the name tags of the 29 men who died in the 2010 mine disaster.

West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O'Connor has stoked the campaign to relocate the historic steam train the Kingston Flyer to the West Coast.