A judge has taken a German tourist's word that she will voluntarily pay thousands of dollars in compensation to a motorcyclist that she seriously injured in a head-on crash.

A rental car driven by a tourist smashed through the plate glass window of a Hokitika automotive workshop, giving workers a fright and causing $40,000 of damage.

The daughter of Gloriavale leader Neville Cooper, who walked out of the commune after 41 years, says the latest family to leave face a hard road.

Gloriavale Christian Community has responded to accusations they were living in a "false system", by saying that "no one is here against their will".

A 21-year-old Westport woman sold $12,000 of furniture -including a couch and fridge - from the furnished house she was renting.

A family of 14 have walked out on a West Coast religious commune to start a new life after concluding they had been living in a “false system”.

A driver was swept more than 200m downstream and found clinging to a tree after his small truck went over a bank and into the Buller River.

"There were dead animals in drains." A vet has described an horrific case of mistreating cattle on a farm as the worst he has seen.

A desperate plea by 15 bystanders for passing jetboats to rescue a 30-year-old struggling in the chilly waters of the Hokitika Gorge were ignored by the boaties.

Twenty people have rescued an American tourist from a West Coast cave after the woman suffered a suspected broken leg yesterday.

Even the rain has a five-star edge at Te Waonui Forest Retreat, finds Bronwyn Sell.

Eighty five years ago the carrier that was to become Hawaiian Airlines started commercial flights using a plane dubbed the "ugly duckling".

Bronwyn Sell stays at a family-friendly place with dramatic ocean views near Greymouth.

A search is underway after a French tourist went missing on a mountain hike in Arthur's Pass National Park.

A Chinese tourist who killed a friend in a rental car crash last week is “bereft” over the incident, a court has been told.

A Chinese woman on a trip to New Zealand has pleaded guilty over a West Coast crash that killed her companion and injured two others.

A car driven by tourists was seen on the wrong side of the road shortly before it crashed on the West Coast of the South Island yesterday, killing one.

A blood-borne, tick-carried parasite, which causes serious a disease in cattle, has been identified for the first time on the West Coast.