Two Auckland climbers are facing a second night in a snow cave on Mount Taranaki with no overnight equipment, after rescuers were driven back by foul weather today.

A woman killed in a collision with a school bus in Taranaki yesterday was a young German national.

Terrified school children screamed and cried as their bus collided with a car, its windscreen shattered and it began to fill with smoke.

A crash between a schoolbus and car has left a woman dead and an 8-year-old girl with critical injuries.

A homicide investigation has been launched in Taranaki after a man stabbed to death at his Opunake property this morning.

A 24-year-old woman who was missing overnight after going to a Taranaki beach has been found safe today.

Amble for hours in any direction, writes Jane Jeffries.

An 18-year-old woman has been abducted and sexually assaulted by up to five men in the Taranaki town of Waitara.

The survival of the most endangered kiwi species is being pinned on a feisty young kiwi chick which was released to its new home on a predator-free island today.

A kiwi hit by a car in the Waitotara Valley, Taranaki, last week is getting a health check-up from Massey University vets.

Tauranga Art Gallery has come under fire for displaying two photos that feature coarsely worded messages scrawled in ballpoint beside images of a 1974 gay liberation dance.

Maori elders blessed the scene of a fatal car crash in South Wairarapa this morning where the body of the 17-year-old crash victim lay covered on the road.

Police are urging motorists to drive to the conditions after three people died on New Zealand's roads within 11 hours in separate crashes.

A Taranaki beach hermit's unlawful driftwood home is being dismantled after 16 years of occupation.

A suspected tornado damaged two houses and scattered debris in Taranaki last night.

Residents of a tiny rural community will gather this Tuesday to ponder its status as one of the most intensively drilled places in the country.

The unusual death of a 10-month-old boy who was run over by a trailer has prompted a coroner to renew calls for vigilance around driveways.

As families gather for Christmas, Kerry Lock walks around his house alone after the death of his partner Rosemaree Kurth, gunned down by the boy he called his grandson,

Child Youth and Family has admitted mistakes in its handling of 13-year-old murderer Jordan Nelson following criticism from the teen's step-grandfather.