Cathy Cooke's experience hasn't made her bitter about adventure tourism - just angry about safety standards.

A Nelson surfer suffered a deep puncture wound to his hand while wrestling a 2m shark during the weekend.

The Government is campaigning to have two North Korean ships caught illegally fishing in a protected area off Antarctica blacklisted.

New images have emerged of the rip that a Piha surfing instructor took a group of teenagers into on Monday, sparking criticism from surf lifesavers at the west Auckland beach.

The Government says Petrobras is following DOC guidelines to minimise the disturbance to marine mammals while it looks for oil off the East Cape.

A pregnant New Zealander living near a nuclear power plant in quake-stricken Japan has managed to flee to safety.

An increase in the number of farmers failing significantly to meet effluent rules is unacceptable, says Fonterra. Significant non-compliance increased by 1 per cent to 16 per cent for the 2009/10 season.

The national drowning toll for the first two months of the year rose to 35, after 15 drownings in February.

Thirty-five jobs may be up for the chop but affected staff are being consulted before any decisions, Niwa says.

A contractor has smashed through a major underground cable in Christchurch, leaving the southern suburbs on back-up power and nearly killing himself twice in the process.