Department of Conservation gives warning as ground crews launch another onslaught against a large scrub fire ripping through more than 300ha at Arthurs Pass.

An Australian tourist driver who had his car keys taken from him by a member of the public while driving on the Lindis Pass earlier this month has been fined.

A teenage farmhand became an accidental hero after keeping a potentially disastrous scrub fire at bay.

He spent 18 months without power after his electricity supplier refused to reconnect him after a storm. Now he's won an out-of-court settlement - and an apology.

An Invercargill woman went to great lengths to hide her face yesterday during a court hearing over the 25 cats she keeps on her property.

A Taiwanese visitor who drowned at a Central Otago lake last week has today been named by police.

As hot, dry weather threatens to create a drought, farmers are preparing for the worst.

A search is underway for a swimmer who went missing in Cromwell in Central Otago this afternoon.

A search and rescue operation is underway near Queenstown after a German tourist failed to return a locator beacon by his "panic date".

'Would you rather have distressed kids in the back of the car, or dead kids splattered across the windscreen?' A man defends taking keys off a tourist driver.

Severe thunderstorms may hit Dunedin, North Otago and Clutha this afternoon bringing heavy rain and hail as large as 20mm to some areas, MetService warns.

A member of the public stopped a tourist driving a rental car on the Lindis Pass and took the vehicle's keys, after narrowly avoiding a head-on collision.

"He had the wind up him, so to speak." A 5-year-old was found clutching on to reeds after being blown across Lake Waihola on an inflatable toy this afternoon.

She still thinks of them every day. Katharine Webb has penned a touching memoriam for her two children, killed at the hands of their father.

A driver who stole a car and drove it 28km at speeds of up to 160kmh told police he didn't stop, because he had no licence and had been drinking.

Two men employed by a high school in Otago have been ordered to repay the school's board following a Novopay error.

''It's pretty disappointing and done by a sick mind," says a man who discovered dozens of pieces of barbed wire across an accessway to a Dunedin beach.

Sarah Lang gets on her bike for her health – and a slice of history.

Police are investigating after an elderly Dunedin couple was found dead in their home this morning.

Justine Tyerman cycles to Paradise ...

Auckland are two from two and rolling along nicely in the domestic 50-over competition after cleaning up Canterbury at Eden Park yesterday.

Tears and laughter shared centre stage as Rachel Clark's grieving family remembered a special girl taken too soon.

Mike Rankin counts himself lucky, despite his new truck plummeting over a bank at his Caversham home.

The Cromwell community is reeling in shock at the sudden death of a 17-year-old who was recognised as a young leader with huge potential.

A taxi firm boss whose driver was racially insulted by an off-duty Queenstown policewoman says the company is relieved she has resigned.

A police officer who racially abused a taxi driver in Queenstown last year has resigned.

Silver Fern Farms faces a bill of up to $3 million after it was ruled it made more than 100 Dunedin seasonal meat workers redundant.