A man charged over a violent kidnapping and a daring escape from Auckland’s central police station will face trial.

A judge ordered an American man who caused a fatal crash on the Coromandel Peninsula to pay $5500 for emotional harm and told him "this will remain with you forever".

An American man was due to fly home with his wife the day after the vehicle he was driving crossed the centre line, hitting and killing an Auckland woman.

Danielle Wright discovers clubs happy to welcome you in out of the cold.

A man was trapped in his crushed vehicle about 200m down a steep bank for about three hours before he was spotted, emergency services say.

An alleged kidnapper who escaped police custody in Auckland has appeared in court this morning handcuffed and flanked by two police officers.

Police hunting a suspected kidnapper who escaped custody are door-knocking his known associates.

Ease into tramping with an overnighter at the Pinnacles Hut in the Coromandel, writes Andrew Laxon.

For a fantastic surf or swim, Waihi Beach is the place to be, says Elisabeth Easther.

A man was seriously injured when he fell six metres while canyoning in Coromandel yesterday.

Quick-thinking locals saved the life of a young man whose people mover vehicle went off the road and dropped down a bank into a stream in a remote area of the Coromandel Peninsula, police say.

A very premature baby made a dramatic arrival into the world when he was born with little warning on a remote school paddock in the Coromandel.

A group of beachgoers scrambled to save four people from drowning at a notorious North Island beach.

Elisabeth Easther falls in love with a slice of coastal paradise.

Not too long ago in Whangamata, locals near the beach might have peered out their kitchen window and seen a little girl walking down the street, lugging a surfboard twice her size.

A private lodge in Coromandel was badly damaged by a large fire early this morning.

A kiwi which was savaged by a dog near Coromandel has been euthanised at Auckland Zoo.

Two people had to be rescued from a vehicle that was left hanging sideways from a tree down a sheer bank after it crashed off a rural Coromandel road yesterday afternoon.

A man is dead after being involved in an alcohol-fuelled brawl at a Waikato property yesterday.

A diver is recuperating at the Devonport Naval Base after suffering decompression sickness during a dive.

A young man is being spoken to by police after he allegedly put a pipe bomb into a rural Coromandel letterbox last night.

The surf lifesaving season kicked off without any serious incidents at Hot Water Beach, but lifeguards there fear that won't last long.