Covid-19 cases in the community continue to drop and symptomatic Aucklanders are being urged to get tested this weekend.

Gales that ripped through the South Island overnight and this morning left a trail of damage, sparking fires, knocking down trees, and pushing over shelter belts.

The boss of a New Plymouth vet clinic is being hailed as a conservation hero for being the go-to-guy for nursing injured native birds back to health.

Police say they have checked more than 58,000 vehicles on the borders of Auckland in the past three days - and turned around 554.

As Aucklanders face another weekend in lockdown, we bring you ideas for family games, art creations and messy play to keep the kids entertained.

A board member who resigned in protest has been elected as the new leader of the Nurses' Organisation.

Vaccination centres have been scaled up again in Auckland today, amid second-dose bookings from the country's first mass vaccination event.

The 19-year-old appeared by audiovisual link at North Shore District Court this afternoon, one week after a terrorist went on a stabbing frenzy in New Lynn.

New daily Covid-19 community case numbers have dropped to 11 today.

While many people in New Zealand have jumped on the chance to get vaccinated for Covid-19, it is not the case for everyone - some people yearn for hesitant family members to get vaccinated.

MBIE has received more than 700 complaints about businesses breaking Covid-19 alert level rules during this outbreak. See how the rest of the day's events unfolded with RNZ's live blog.

Campaigners fighting a proposed landfill at Dome Valley say they have had a "good win" today.

People whose vehicle licences or registrations expired just before lockdown will have more time to get them up to date.

The government has announced a second round of the Covid-19 Resurgence Support Payment. Watch the latest media briefing here.

A person is in a serious condition after being trapped for several hours when a truck crashed north of Napier.

The terrorist who stabbed shoppers at an Auckland supermarket tried to relinquish his New Zealand residence three years ago.

Police have launched a fresh appeal for information regarding the unsolved death of Christchurch woman Mellory Manning.

Visitor rules at Auckland Hospital have been tightened following an outcry - but the union for junior doctors says there should not be any visitors at all.