An emergency services call out to Te Puna Wai youth justice facility last night was due to a group of girls huffing aerosol cans, police have confirmed.

A bus driver's spontaneous detour has come to a unplanned halt at a hairpin turn in Dunedin's Northeast Valley.

Three armed offenders clothed from head to toe stole cash and cigarettes from a Christchurch dairy early this morning.

Diana Plater enjoys some of the best Central Otago has to offer.

A dairy farmer under financial pressure despite working 100-hour weeks has admitted breaking the tails of nearly 50 cows.

The town popped up following the discovery of gold in the mid-1860s and was named after George Ross, provincial treasurer of Canterbury.

A young masked woman entered a Dunedin dairy with a weapon and demanded money.

A woman is injured after two cars collided in Dunedin.

Shearers' quarters have been damaged by fire on a North Canterbury farm.

Police believe rapist and kidnapper Nigel Robert Gately may be in Marlborough.

A couple travelling in convoy were involved in a four-car crash in Dunedin.

The memorabilia of former All Black Neil Purvis has been lost to fire along with the home and memories of his Tarras family after their homestead was destroyed.

Double the average number of meningitis cases have been identified in the South this year as authorities call for vigilance following the death of an Otago Polytechnic student.

A car has collided with a fire engine just south of Gore.

The parents of a 20-year-old student, who died tragically at the weekend from meningitis, have warned people to be wary of the disease's symptoms.

Close contacts of an Otago Polytechnic student who died at the weekend from meningitis have been offered antibiotics to reduce their risk of catching the disease.

Gloriavale teen Prayer Ready choked to death in an isolation room. Now, a daughter of the controversial leader says her mother would have been "told what to say".

A young motorcyclist who police say died after colliding with a Chinese driver's vehicle in Otago on Saturday will donate organs to seven different people.

A Timaru factory has been damaged after a heating unit used for plastics moulds caught fire.

Two people have been freed after they were trapped in their vehicles in a crash at Timaru.

Two rental cars were broken into and $25,000 worth of cash and property stolen at Hokitika Gorge on Saturday.

Whoever brutally assaulted a Dunedin pensioner is still at large.

A motorcyclist who died after colliding with a car in Otago on Saturday has been named.

One person is dead after a car was discovered submerged in a culvert near Balfour, Southland.

The person who brutally assaulted a Dunedin pensioner is still at large and she is asking why police let the case go cold so quickly.

A motorcyclist was critically injured in a crash with a car in Otago this afternoon.

Professional cyclist Keagan Girdlestone came close to death in a crash in Italy. He has made enough progress to return to Christchurch to continue rehabilitation.

This friendly town is a fabulous place from which to explore the Catlins.

A Dunedin surfer and paddleboarder got up close and personal with a pair of whales which were frolicking off the Dunedin coast today. Surfer

The children of a boatie missing for more than two years have accepted it is more than likely that he is dead, an inquest has heard.