People affected by fires may be entitled to free doctor visits.

Breeding colony of 2000 seals north of Kaikoura at risk as part of SH1 rebuild.

COMMENT: Yesterday our nation paused just before one o'clock to remember.

Four Otago students were seriously assaulted by non-students.

Rider dies after motorcycle crash in the Tasman District.

Development West Coast chairman John Sturgeon has had his term cut short by four months.

Cops are warning of a serial masturbator in Queenstown.

COMMENT: Today we mourn but let's also look forward to a new Christchurch as it becomes our most beautiful city.

A terrible season with persistent rain, little sunshine and depressed prices is proving to be "the perfect storm" for stressed West Coast farmers.

A man is in police custody after an incident in Taieri Mouth in which another man was injured in what was believed to be a machete attack.

The driver, captured in footage shot on the Crown Range, ignored repeated efforts to make him pull over.

The end of a three-year affair with a Dunedin businessman allegedly led an Auckland woman to harass her former lover's wife.

The stereotype of the couch-burning student is becoming a thing of the past as University of Otago's tough stance on fire-lighting pays dividends.

Aaron Keown still has the $100 he promised to give to the person who could identify a worse intersection than the Harewood, Gardiners and Breens Rds junction.

When a horse walked into the Outram Hotel bar yesterday, the barman didn't ask, "Why the long face?"

Crews have managed to contain a big blaze at high country farm Otematata Station in North Otago.

Fire cordons in Port Hills are being lifted, to give people a few hours' access to their homes.

With temperatures expected to heat up this week, fire crews are racing against the clock to contain the Port Hills blaze and prevent any further loss.

A fault at the Kikiwa substation near St Arnaud knocked out power to almost the entire West Coast this morning.

Bad weather has forced the start of a major air show to be postponed, as much of the country braces for stormy conditions.

Hundreds of firefighters continued working around the clock last night, hosing down hot spots and smothering embers from the devastating Port Hills blaze.

The teen was attacked from behind by an unknown male, police say.

The Port Hills inferno was so powerful that it was spreading up to 160m every minute at it's peak, and water firefighters put on it evaporated.

Frustrated homeowners still don't know whether their Port Hills homes are standing or have been ravaged by fire.

Contractors working in the area where the devastating fire first broke out on Monday pleaded for helicopters to be sent out, it can be revealed.

Canadian cyclist Bernard Gendron surprised doctors in Dunedin yesterday by talking after wakig up from induced coma.

Farmers in Central Otago hope a new method of biological control will give them some respite from the rabbit problem.

Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling are jumping for joy in southern paradise as they make the most of their time in New Zealand.

Helicopters are getting ready to go up and give emergency workers an overview of any fresh destruction.

A photographer who surveyed the damage of the Port Hills fire from the air has shared the incredible images that show the devastation.