The city has spoken - or 30 percent of it has - and Wayne Brown has been voted the next mayor of Auckland - but he won't be speaking to media today and is spending the day with family.

Corrections is set to move 75 prisoners into Rimutaka Prison to relieve pressures elsewhere.

Aucklanders are being asked to keep away from a list of maunga this Guy Fawkes to prevent devastating fires caused by fireworks.

Four people have died on Central North Island roads over the weekend.

Special monitoring equipment is being installed in Bay of Plenty estuaries to understand how wetlands will fare as sea levels rise.

Firefighters say it's likely they'll still be battling a 200-hectare bush fire on the slopes of Mt Creighton, near Queenstown, into tomorrow.

The threat of hackers has stalled a $40m school IT project for more than a year.

One man has been taken into custody after an incident in a residential area in Whanganui this afternoon.

More than 250 whales that stranded on the Chatham Islands have died or had to be euthanised.

A light aircraft had to make an emergency landing in Rangiora this morning, police say.

Unsuccessful Wellington mayoral candidate Paul Eagle says his centrist campaign foundered because votes split along party lines, while the outgoing mayor leaves after 30 years at the council table.

Christchurch is to host the next Special Olympics National Summer Games in 2025.

Part of State Highway 60 between Motueka and Richmond will partially close later this month to allow for extensive road resurfacing.

Analysis - In the end it was a trouncing. Aucklanders had a clear choice between two distinctly different mayoral candidates in Wayne Brown and Efeso Collins, and resoundingly went Brown's way.

The chair of Auckland Transport has resigned following Wayne Brown's mayoral win today, saying she will "willingly exit the role".

Tory Whanau says it is "pretty wild" to have been voted in as the new mayor of Wellington.

Wayne Brown has claimed victory in the Auckland mayoralty race and says he is privileged and humbled to be the city's new mayor.

Incoming Dunedin mayor Jules Radich says he wants to be an inclusive leader for the whole city after he unseated first-term mayor Aaron Hawkins in a landslide in the southern city.