Waihi gold miners have accused their Australian employer of Victorian work practices by making them take their breaks underground during 11-hour shifts.

The Coromandel is promising cheap RWC accommodation rates that will undercut Auckland packages reaching into the thousands.

Grant Dyson gets to the bottom of the Waihi opencast mining operation.

There will be no open cast mining on Great Barrier Island or Coromandel, John Key assured Parliament today, while under attack over the Govt's mining plan.

Police say there may have been a sighting of Auckland woman Susan O'Brien's car in Waihi but they are no closer to locating her.

The mother of a Hamilton man who died after a paintball attack wants to know why no one was charged over his death.

Shark sightings around the country have forced beach closures more than 12 times this summer.

A 15-year-old schoolboy took his own life after being part of a late-night text conversation about suicide.

Shark sightings have prompted lifeguards at holiday hotspots to urge swimmers to take caution.

'It's a bloody terrible thing ... that was my baby girl,' said distraught dad Daniel Thompson after a driveway tragedy that killed his baby daughter.

The Western BOP District Council is trying to stop smoking outdoors with a smokefree policy targeting 30 of the district's beaches.

Wairoa College student died while trying to rescue his prized and expensive basketball from river.

Up to six people fled after the stolen SUV they were in collided with a car, leaving its driver with head injuries, police say.