The worst winds since Cyclone Ita battered the West Coast last year are forecast to hit the area tomorrow - the first day of the whitebait season.

The West Coast fishing season opens at dawn tomorrow, but one of the biggest whitebait buyers in South Westland says he is not holding his breath for a bountiful season.

At least two classrooms at South Westland Area School, in the small West Coast town of Hari Hari, were destroyed in a fire last night.

Solid Energy acting chairman Andy Coupe admitted it was "unlikely" that any sale, or sales, would cover its outstanding debt.

Drink-drivers tested police patience throughout the West Coast at the weekend.

Mr Key said Solid Energy had $300 million of outstanding debt and was in a "precarious position".

Illicit drug use is rampant in the West Coast workforce, with methamphetamine the drug of choice, according to recent tests.

More than 20 jobs will be lost when Downer closes its West Coast offices at the end of August.

Human remains were found in the rubble of the ruined remote property yesterday.

South Island's Agassiz Glacier has been "un-named" as part of a global campaign to remove the use of the name of Agassiz, a Swiss geologist who believed not all races were created equal.

Bronwyn Sell stays in an ocean-front room on the West Coast.

Catholics are being called en-masse to attend Mass in Ross to save the town's last remaining church from closure.

Two women seen showing "extreme intoxication" in a Greymouth bar has led to the premises losing its licence to sell alcohol.

The owner of a helicopter that "rolled over" on take-off in the mountains behind Hari Hari on Saturday, seriously injuring the pilot, does not yet know what caused the crash.

Safety inspectors are being sent to the remote site of a chopper crash which seriously injured a young pilot on the South Island's West Coast at the weekend.

A decade-long project to save endangered giant snails from a West Coast coal mine will finish next year.

Reefton police say help from quick-thinking locals helped nab four burglars who smashed their way into the service station early today.

The woman who put Gloriavale cult leader Hopeful Christian in prison says he is no man of God and labelled him a “pervert”.

The woman who put Gloriavale Christian Community guru Hopeful Christian in prison for indecent assault has had her name suppression lifted so she can tell her story.

Two people were killed on the roads in separate incidents during the weekend.

A literary tour of the West Coast takes Bronwyn Sell on a journey that traverses brooding landscapes.

Pike River Mine survivor Daniel Rockhouse says he was humbled to accept an award for bravery at an investiture ceremony at Government House this morning.

Elisabeth Easther booked a trip to the wild West Coast to fritter away a weekend.

The parents of a 15-month-old Greymouth boy who died in Auckland’s Starship Hospital last month have been spoken to by police.

A Rotomanu farmer who stood trial in March for his part in the starvation and death of nearly 800 cows has been found guilty.

The ramifications of a further 113 job losses at Stockton will reverberate right down the West Coast and all the way to the Port of Lyttelton, MP Damien O'Connor says.