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.

Gisborne is in a water crisis following a major break in the main trunk pipeline from the dams that supply the city with water.

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

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.

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 court has been told that NZ local councils have a clear legal power to fluoridate public water supplies, a power devolved to them by Parliament in 2002.

Lithium could be added to water supplies by NZ's local councils under the same vague rules that allow them to add fluoride, a test court case has 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.