Two women who discovered they were both in a relationship with the same man and then ransacked his house and blackmailed him have been sentenced to 350 hours community work.

One motorist is dead and a man is lucky to be alive after two cars collided on a rural Waikato road, sending one vehicle somersaulting through the air and leaving the other impaled by fence posts.

A devastating pig disease which broke out in the North Island in 2003 and crossed to the South Island in 2006 is still spreading, farmers say.

A road worker who died after he was run over by a tarseal spraying truck north-east of Hamilton on Thursday was today named by police as Graham Donald Bennie, 55, of Huntly.

All Blacks winger Joe Rokocoko has been reinstated to the Blues' starting team to play the Chiefs on Saturday.

In scenic grounds, offset by lime and olive groves, this pair of rural properties could well be heaven-sent.

The national drowning toll for the first two months of the year rose to 35, after 15 drownings in February.