A man naked from the waist down stopped to pick up two Chilean women hitchhiking on the West Coast.

A storm battered the western side of the Southern Alps just under a week ago, closing roads and stranding holiday makers across the region.

The body of a man recovered from a creek in the Mikonui River area, south of Ross on the West Coast, has been confirmed as that of 50-year-old Christchurch man Rex Leslie Taylor.

A Westport man who sold whiskey to a Buller High School student prior to the teenager's death has been sentenced to two months in prison.

Having a middleman able to absorb the criticism and stay immune to the moral and emotional elements of the Pike tragedy makes sense politically, writes Gerard Morris.

A Haast man was sentenced to nine months' supervision and ordered to pay his former partner $500 for emotional harm after being convicted of an assault.

The West Coast search for missing Christchurch tramper Rex Leslie Taylor, 50, has been suspended, after another two-day search failed to yield more clues as to his whereabouts.

Newborns and unborn babies in later pregnancy have been dying in South Auckland at a higher rate than the national average for most of the past decade.

A Buller man who has been plagued by medical problems since 2008 may have to wait at least another two months for an ACC review to be completed.

A sexual assault victim faced her attacker in court and described how his "depravity" had robbed her of her childhood.

Fears are growing that a missing Christchurch tramper could have been swept away in a swollen West Coast river about two weeks ago.