A woman in the process of building her dream home has been lumped with an extra $213,000 bill due to "soaring building costs".

A phantom pothole patcher has left the Palmerston North City Council peeved and ratepayers apparently out of pocket.

An artist residency project at a recycling hub in Auckland is transforming or repurposing discarded objects into art.

An Auckland man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempting to smuggle 13 kilograms of methamphetamine.

The fourth of six women to testify in the rape trial of a Wellington man says she felt confused when she awoke to find not the person she had gone to bed with, but his friend.

Prominent Otago regional councillor Michael Laws says he has been taught a valuable lesson after being re-elected by 21 votes.

The explosion was found to have been caused by a person who mixed two chemicals together.

The country's top detective and architect of a controversial police interviewing technique has announced he is leaving the police force.

Police in Kāpiti investigating the disappearance of Breanna Muriwai are appealing for information about a bag that was spotted on Te Horo Beach where she was last seen, nearly seven weeks ago.

Police in Gisborne confirmed they were attending an incident at a forestry site.

A social media influencer who raped one man and sexually violated another while they slept has been jailed for nine years.

Police have identified the vehicle used in the fatal shooting of a woman near Rotorua last month.

A 39-year-old Auckland man has been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the smuggling of methamphetamine into New Zealand.

Analysis - The government's use of a firm run by Israeli ex-spies and military commanders to scour social media platforms has landed NZ in a global debate over 'surveillance for hire', writes Phil Pennington.

The dogs of Christchurch will be strutting their stuff on stage this weekend in the first-ever Colombo Dog Fashion show.

New Zealand has recorded its first case of the new Omicron subvariant BQ.1.1, and an epidemiologist says a return to an alert level system could help avoid future waves.

Food prices are at a 13-year high with economists and supermarket boss blaming war, wages and weather.

The protest group which has disrupted Wellington traffic this week have again been removed from a motorway by police.