South of Auckland prepares for level 3 restrictions, a further drop in Covid-19 community cases, 19 arrests, and MPs socially distance as Parliament sits.

New Zealand soldiers say they had to drag people through sewerage ditches and over barbed wire to get them to safety in Kabul.

Level 3 takeaway cravings, working from home mishaps and questionable mask alternatives, here's some of the best fun and uplifting social media content from day 14 of lockdown.

A Corrections officer at Spring Hill Prison in Waikato has tested positive for Covid-19. Meanwhile, the president of the Corrections Association says officers try their best to stay within bubbles but "there is some contamination".

Police investigating the discovery of a baby girl's body at an Auckland recycling facility are scouring CCTV footage from around 100 trucks to find out how she ended up there.

Cabinet is exploring a second phase evacuation from Afghanistan, and the effects resettlement would have on New Zealand.

Wellingtonians are already dreaming up their first food orders as the capital prepares for an overnight alert level drop.

Boats are being used to try to move a pod of orca in an inlet north of Wellington out to sea.

Mountain biking trails across Nelson and Tasman will reopen on Thursday as the rules around recreation ease slightly in alert level 3.

People scrambled to save what they could as "massive amounts" of floodwater hit parts of West Auckland, with 200mm of rain in Kumeū overnight.

Police checkpoints on Auckland's southern boundaries will be up and running before the clock turns midnight and those south of the city enter alert level three. See how the day's Covid-19 news developed with RNZ's liveblog.

A last minute legal bid by a group of Afghans trapped in Kabul has been turned down by the High Court.

The Director-General of Health says we may never find out the source of the current outbreak, while the PM says she lies awake at night pondering the ways in which it may have happened.

There are 49 new cases of Covid-19 in the community, bringing the total number of cases to 612.

Nineteen people have been arrested for flouting alert level 4 rules during anti-lockdown protests this morning, while in Nelson two people were fined after hand delivering offensive anti-vaccination letters to a number of medical practices.

A man who displayed erratic behaviour following his arrest in Auckland has ended up in hospital, police say.

Auckland parents and children are resigned to at least two more weeks of remote learning in level 4 with the likelihood of more at alert level 3.

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the Kermadec Islands region near New Zealand, the US Geological Survey says.