West Auckland residents complaining of "earthy" tasting water are being offered free bottles of water and told the problem might not be fixed until tomorrow.

Darryl Rolton wouldn't hesitate to help a mate in trouble. That instinctive nature cost the Christchurch man his life on Saturday when he leapt 11 metres off the Maruia Falls.

Tony Abbott's administration has been accused of being the most conservation-hostile in living memory.

Monthly billing under a strict user-pays policy has driven Aucklanders to cut their water use to the same level as during the severe 1994 drought.

Eyes on the underwater world of New Zealand, photos by Richard Robinson. See more of his photos in this series at www.depth.co.nz.

'Come to our bake sale,' said a member of a group trying to raise $140k for a court appeal against a $950k sewer tunnel project.

All the action from Auckland Anniversary Day's annual regatta.

New Zealand has donated hundreds of emergency shelter kits and a further $300,000 to help residents of cyclone-hit Tonga.

Gisborne's main water pipe has been reconnected four days after it broke following work by Gisborne District Council staff and contractors from Fulton Hogan.

Plans are in place for the worst-case scenario as Gisborne enters day three of its water crisis.

Commercial and recreational boating has resumed on the Dart River, near Queenstown, following a major slip at Sandy Bluff at the weekend.

A 49-year-old boatie believed to be dead after falling off a boat at the mouth of the Hutt River has been identified as Uikilifi Peniamina.

The search for the body of a 49-year-old Wellington boatie is focused on the eastern coast of Wellington Harbour.

A search has resumed for a man who fell off a boat in Wellington Harbour yesterday afternoon.

Twenty-seven pilot whales beached at the top of the South Island overnight have been euthanised.

The risk of a supervolcano eruption powerful enough to wipe out civilisation as we know it is far greater than previously thought, a study has found.

People are being warned to stay away from Otago's Dart River, as a lake grows behind a large landslip which blocked the river at the weekend.

A body found in Bay of Plenty has been confirmed as that of a fisherman who disappeared after a stingray pulled his fishing rod into the sea.