A group that savagely bashed a disabled man who had been the subject of a false rape rumour will each spend at least 17 years in jail.

A quad bike rider has fled after leading police on a pursuit through the city this morning.

Severe rain and wind warnings and a drop in temperatures have been issued for parts of the South Island and lower North Island this weekend.

Paul Rush visits a site where Maori legend and ancient architecture collide to remind us of our shared heritage.

"Horrendous" is how a judge has described Jim Wilson's 21 years of sexual offending against a female victim, starting when she was four years old.

It's "one day at a time" for toddler Caleb Skinner as doctors slowly bring him out of an induced coma, after he was allegedly seriously injured by a friend of his mother on Monday.

The mother of a Wairarapa supermarket worker bashed to death in his flat says her son had planned for a quiet night in front of the television when he was attacked.

A large fire has broken out at the Masterton Medical Centre this evening.

A Wairarapa pub which tried to claim its courtesy van driver was a lonely volunteer looking for company has been ordered to pay the pensioner for his work.

An Owaka man was airlifted to Dunedin Hospital after a quad bike rolled in the Catlins yesterday.

A "severe'' 6.2 quake that hit the lower North Island today has toppled walls and chimneys and sent rockfalls across roads, with a building in Masterton red-stickered due to damage.

Tegan Gadsby, 7, was gutted to find her early Christmas present from her nana destroyed.

Rural fire crews are satisfied a scrub fire on the South Wairarapa coast has been put out, but are checking regularly for flare-ups.

Heather Tyler finds a small town making the most of some fabulous vineyards.

Family, neighbours and firefighters fought in vain to save the life of a Masterton man they dragged near death from a blaze that gutted his sleepout late last night.

The severe earthquake which rocked NZ this afternoon sent workers in Wellington running into the streets as the ground shook and buildings swayed from side to side.

Marlborough and Wellington residents tell their stories of today's earthquake and its aftermath.