Lifeguards are gearing up for the biggest weekend of the year as holidaymakers are set to throng popular beaches all over the country.

More New Zealanders will be given first-aid treatment by lifeguards for injuries such as cut feet and marine stings this summer than rescued from the water, new research shows.

Entombed at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in an upended tugboat for three days, Harrison Odjegba Okene begged God for a miracle.

Hamilton mayor Julie Hardaker says people are over the fluoridation issue and just want decisions made about their drinking water.

In legal terms, there is no practical difference between putting chlorine or fluoride into public water supplies, the High Court in New Plymouth heard today.

A 35-year-old surfer was fatally mauled by a shark Saturday off a notorious stretch of Australia's west coast, police said.

NZ rivers and swimming spots will increasingly be polluted by algae and contain fewer fish as the dairy boom continues, an environmental watchdog has warned.

A scheme promising riches and protection from droughts for a struggling rural community has inspired fierce resistance - but critics say their concerns risk being drowned in a rushed process

In the last of a three-part series, Young New Zealander of the Year and CEO of the Sustainable Coastlines Charitable Trust ,Sam Judd, discusses the United Nations Environment Programs’ Global Partnership on Marine Litter.

Surf lifesavers are launching their summer patrols over Labour Weekend, but a mixed bag of weather could deter some would-be beachgoers from taking a splash.

Two boaties clung desperately to a single life jacket off the Horowhenua coast while rescuers came painfully close but could not see them in the dark, a coroner has found.

Every day, millions of tons of inadequately treated sewage, industrial and agricultural waste enters the world's waterways, writes Sam Judd.

Archaeologists yesterday battled against the tide to rescue 14th century moa bones from a "significant" historical settlement at Awamoa Creek, south of Oamaru.

Some Raetihi residents have become ill after 15,000 of diesel spilled into the town's water supply.

A Bluff woman has been named New Zealand's champion of water safety.