The PM's Office has finally agreed to release transcripts from his post cabinet press conferences, and Audrey Young says it's a small, but important, victory.

We enjoyed the group of willow trees in Tuff Crater, Northcote, with their nesting kingfishers and rosellas.

I think Andrew Little might have had his first Tony Abbott moment at Waitangi last Friday.

If the Waitangi Tribunal is right in saying the chiefs of 1840 did not cede sovereignty when they signed the Treaty, the reason was probably that they had more practical concerns on their minds.

Andrew Little made something of "a captain's call" on Waitangi Day when suggesting notions of greater Maori sovereignty should not be dismissed.

Onlookers who rushed to a crash scene on a rural road northwest of Auckland tried to comfort the driver before he died in his upturned car.

Key was talking about the flag and downplaying the Waitangi report on sovereignty, but Little had bigger fish to fry.

With all the politics happening up in Waitangi, Auckland partied at Bastion Point with an inclusive and peaceful family day for all races.

Motorists are urged to take care on the busy roads this holiday weekend, particularly after a spate of road crashes yesterday thought to be caused by wet conditions.

Prime Minister John Key and Government ministers have been welcomed on to Te Tii Marae without incident.

Last year, two notable New Zealand economists warned of dire consequences if our regional economies were allowed to run down from "benign neglect".

Government ministers have upped the pressure on Ngapuhi to get on with their settlement in the lead-up to Waitangi Day - and even the Governor-General got in on the act.

Gareth Morgan enjoys an argument and has the wealth to indulge his views. But his latest adopted cause - biculturalism - isn't needed.

Several generations ago, children who dared to speak te reo Maori at school were cruelly silenced.

Former Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples joked about putting his body on the line to protect the Prime Minister at Waitangi, but successor Te Ururoa Flavell won't be following suit.

Prime Minister John Key says he is expecting a "rough" reception at Waitangi this year as he walks into a hotbed of issues.

The country's biggest iwi wants to move out of grievance mode and into talks with the Crown about settling its Treaty of Waitangi claims.

Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson has refuted suggestions that a settlement invitation with the country's largest tribe was a "cash offer".

Around rolls another Waitangi Day, and with it the predictable outbursts from a small self-important, racket-making bunch, who so disappointingly let their own kind down by drowning out what should be a time of national reflection, writes Toby Manhire.

It's the middle of summer but you wouldn't know it as dozens of kaihoe (paddlers) brave the drizzle and blustery winds at Waitangi on what is New Zealand's most historic day.

Ngapuhi factions say PM John Key used his Waitangi Day speech as a platform to prematurely force a historic settlement with Ngapuhi in election year for political gain.

New Kiwi families were welcomed together as citizens at Government House today in the spirit of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Governor-General said.