Cheapskate backpackers have forced a Queenstown supermarket to introduce a ticketing system for buying Bluff oysters.

Knives, clubs, large rocks, bottles and an axe were recovered from the scene where a man become the first person to be tasered in the South Island.

To the great white shark, a spot of water out from Stewart Island has been revealed as the equivalent of the corner pub.

Bad weather has put a damper on the start of the Bluff oyster season but it has not stopped Auckland's restaurants and retailers getting them on to plates in the thousands.

A baby owes its life to its grandmother who intervened during her own daughter's attempt at infanticide.

The official warning over a tsunami that threatened the entire east coast of New Zealand today has been downgraded to an advisory, but there is still a threat from ocean surges.

Wave activity "appears to be stabilised" at previously-reported levels, Civil Defence Emergency Management says.

The first wave has reached the Chatham Islands, after a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit Chile overnight. An official tsunami alert remains in place for New Zealand's entire east coast.

A Queenstown base jumper is lucky to survive a 30m fall after crashing into a rock face today.