Preparations are complete for the first delicate step in re-entering the Pike River Coal mine tomorrow morning after a drop in the gas levels inside the West Coast mine over the last couple of weeks.

The driver of a truck and trailer unit is dead after his vehicle crashed over a bank on the Otira Highway.

From plains to peaks to rainforest, the TranzAlpine offers a taster of the striking south.

Police say while they are "highly suspicious" a figure seen in footage taken from within the Pike River mine is a body, it is impossible to confirm without months of work.

A West Coast man is on trial for murdering his elderly neighbour and the man's intellectually handicapped grandson.

A new venture in Denniston allows visitors to step back 100 years to experience life in the coal mines, complete with ghostly visions and echoes of another era, writes Jim Eagles.

The police-led rescue and recovery operation launched in the wake of the Pike River tragedy has cost nearly $11 million, according to figures in a detailed breakdown released this afternoon.

The centre will be named the West Coast Memorial Events Centre in memory of the Pike River and other mine disaster victims.

Families of the Pike River miners have rejected a claim that police leaked previously unseen CCTV footage of the disaster to TVNZ.

On the eve of a preliminary hearing into the Pike River disaster, Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn has warned the collapsed mine's receivers to get in and get the dead miners' remains, or stand aside so someone else can.

In a secret spot, restricted to visitors, Jim Eagles marvels at the elegant, isolated beauty of NZ's only flock of endangered white heron.