A persistent warm spell is hanging about, but those in the South Island are in for rain with weather watches in place.

Environment Canterbury’s budget to cover the fallout of new freshwater regulations could trigger an average rates increase of $136 a property.

Corrections has called in the police over a prison pamphlet expressing support for a destructive riot, and Minister Kelvin Davis has used it as a political cudgel.

Sean Gardiner held a baby whale for hours in the water feeling its “little heart” beating between its dorsal fins.

It’s the tax exemption blamed for New Zealand’s extraordinarily high uptake of polluting double cab utes, but instead of closing the loophole the Government actually looked at extending it to all vehicles.

DHB says the risk of another case is small, but warns community to be vigilant to symptoms in their children.

Stand-up comedian Camille Solari has yet to decide whether her move from the lights of Los Angeles to the paddocks of North Canterbury was her best idea ever.

Sanford has forfeited a $20 million fishing vessel to the Crown for breaking fishing rules, but it could get the boat back for a fee worth a fraction of its value.

Pharmac was told of concerns around changes to funding for an epilepsy drug now at the centre of an inquest into six deaths.

But a Ministry of Health report into how three people caught Covid at the Pullman says the exact cause may never be known.

People throughout Southland felt an earthquake at 5.07pm Tuesday.

The complainant is the third to give evidence in the High Court trial of the influential businessman, who has interim name suppression.

Champagne sprays mixed with a minute's silence for slain Italian diplomat.

A Kmart and a vape store in Auckland are the latest locations linked to to a person who has tested positive for Covid-19.

Two siblings of an earlier case at Papatoetoe High School have tested positive, with attention now turning to Kmart Botany, where one of the latest cases worked over the weekend.

It's not clear how long the new cases have been infectious, so Govt should change alert levels to "stop super spreaders", Dr Siouxsie Wiles says.

The Government's progressive home ownership scheme, announced in the wreckage of KiwiBuild in 2019, has housed just a dozen families.

A person died at scene after being hit by a vehicle in Duvauchelle on Tuesday afternoon.

The judge-alone trial of two brothers facing a litany of charges continued mostly in chambers on Tuesday.

A company that spilled around 60 tonnes of fat, blocking part of New Plymouth's sewer system and discharging onto a beach, has been fined $84,000.