Chat sessions with monks provide a rare insight into their lives, says Kate Roff.

A Thai overstayer who has been living in New Zealand illegally for 10 years has been deported to Thailand, after a failed bid to stay with his partner and New Zealand-born daughter.

The parents of a New Zealand woman who died in mysterious circumstances while on holiday in Thailand are setting up a website to make others aware of the "very real dangers" in the Southeast Asian nation.

No roads, no phones, no power. But that doesn't get in the way of two Auckland ad men who are bringing schools to Southeast Asia's poorest kids - by motorbike. Kirsten Warner meets them.

The World Health Organisation is still stumped over the cause of the string of "puzzling" deaths in Chiang Mai.

Since his eldest child died while backpacking in Thailand, Richard Carter does not welcome idle time.

Kate Roff submerges off the coast of Thailand to meet a local celebrity.

NZ's Foreign Affairs Minister is expecting to receive more information today about the death in Thailand of Sarah Carter.

Japan's biggest quake since records began triggered a shocking 10m tsunami. See how the quake ranks in history.

Police today released the names of six more people who died in Christchurch's February 22, magnitude 6.3 earthquake, while Education Minister Anne Tolley has announced 110 schools in the region will have reopened by next week.

Sometimes it's refreshing to be left to your own devices - but not necessarily when you're sitting on an elephant, writes Christine Cornege.

A fifth tourist has died in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in circumstances eerily similar to New Zealander Sarah Carter's mysterious death - which health officials initially blamed on food poisoning.

The father of New Zealand tourist Sarah Carter wants the Thai hotel she stayed in closed and a more thorough investigation carried out into her death.

Four people have died in mysterious circumstances at the Thai hotel where a New Zealand woman fell fatally ill last month.

Hundreds have gathered at a church in east Auckland today to farewell Sarah Carter, who died of food poisoning in Thailand on Waitangi Day.

The Thai hotel manager who tried to help three young NZ women with food poisoning has described how the trio were bedridden and vomiting.