Blast shouldn't have happened in a modern mine, says Solid Energy chief.

Families of the 29 victims of last year's Pike River mine disaster will seek answers on how their loved ones died when the Royal Commission into one of the country's worst disasters opens in Greymouth tomorrow.

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.

Work to stabilise the Pike River coal mine has been delayed a second time by dangerous gas readings.

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.