Nelson's Rotomairewhenua/Blue Lake, which has the clearest water in the world, is facing a threat from an invasive diatom that blooms into a slimy, clinging algae-like substance.

A state of emergency has been declared in the Buller District, with heavy rain set to continue in the region for the next few days.

Clean energy industries are at the core of a new government plan for how Southland will cope with Tiwai Point aluminium smelter shutting down.

An Otago scheme aimed at keeping floodwaters at bay is under review with climate change looming as a potential challenge.

Sportspeople are being asked to perform in red traffic light restrictions that limit fixtures to a maximum of 100 people.

Two people have been killed in a two-vehicle crash on a section of SH2 at Waiotahe, near Ōpōtiki this afternoon.

Experts are welcoming the shortening of the period between a second Covid-19 vaccine dose and the booster dose.

Police are still appealing for information on a hit and run in Cromwell, Central Otago last month.

A group of non-governmental organisations are calling for Aoteroa's natural wetlands to be doubled in size by 2050 - only 10 percent, or 249,000 hectares, of Aotearoa's wetlands remain untouched.

The West Coast's Wildfoods Festival is the latest event to fall victim to Covid-19 restrictions.

There are 142 new cases of Covid-19 in the community and 54 at the border, the Ministry of Health is reporting today.

Police are asking anyone who was in the Lake Ferry Road area yesterday morning and who may have seen a missing man to contact them.

The Chief Ombudsman has grave concerns about Dunedin's Wakari Hospital inpatient unit for people with intellectual disabilities, or mental health problems.

A man has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Fau Vake, a rising MMA fighter who was punched in a late night attack in Auckland last year.

Cromwell man Mark Gary Miller, 56, has been named by police as the person who died after a ute and trailer crashed off a bridge into Lake Dunstan on Monday evening.

The Southern DHB's chief executive is nervously confident of the DHB's preparedness for the coming Omicron outbreak.

The West Coast Regional Council says engineering advice has ruled out the use of a cut in the Orowaiti River, to alleviate flooding during the current adverse weather.

The case against three men charged with the murder of Upper Hutt woman Lois Tolley in 2016 has unravelled due to lack of evidence.