The parents of an Auckland woman who died with her partner on a climbing trip to Mt Taranaki have spoken for the first time of the "big gap" left in their lives.

Friends of an Auckland couple who died on Mt Taranaki after getting stranded last Labour weekend are set to climb the peak to remember them this weekend.

The prime suspect in the "Stop-Go" slaying of George Taiaroa has left his rural hideaway.

New Plymouth District Council has voted in favour of establishing a Maori ward for the 2016 local body elections.

A man who indecently abused young boys over nearly a decade has narrowly avoided a sentence of preventive detention.

A woman suffered serious injuries when her car crashed down a 30-metre bank and landed in a swamp in South Taranaki.

Two people have suffered from moderate injuries after their vehicles crashed on State Highway 3 in Taranaki early this morning.

Staring at the changing room floor of Invercargill's Rugby Park, trying to keep the nausea at bay, Shane Cleaver knew the day wasn't going to end well.

The fatal police shooting of a man who barricaded himself into a Taranaki hotel during a 13-hour hostage siege was justified, the police watchdog says.

A man seen in the area where a Taranaki grandmother was struck and killed as she tried to remove barriers from a busy highway is being urged to contact police.

The husband of a Taranaki grandmother killed while trying to remove barriers from a highway has urged those responsible to "man up" and come forward.

A woman was killed on a Taranaki highway after someone "stupidly" blocked a lane by intentionally placing barriers across the road, police say.

A woman was hit by a car and died on Waihi Rd, Normanby in South Taranaki last night.

A cleaner who reportedly told her boss she would send someone to him and the visit "wouldn't be nice" if he did not pay her was wrongly fired, the ERA has found.

Scott Donaldson says he'll be 'irked for a long, long time' after he was rescued from high seas kilometres from completing a 3-month odyssey across the Tasman Sea in a kayak.

A dead whale that has washed on to the shore of Taranaki is thought to weigh about 100 tonnes and is unlikely to be moved from its final resting spot.

A hospital chaplain was assaulted with a box cutter and a stick after telling a man attempting to rob his collection boxes, "You can't take God's money".

Police have released a sketch of a man who allegedly assaulted a hospital chaplain with a box cutter this morning.

A bus driver and 10 children have been taken to Hawera Hospital after a school bus and a car collided in south Taranaki this afternoon.

Fire has engulfed a Taranaki house this morning.

Elisabeth Easther finds a quiet town dominated by a mountain.

The death of a 39-year-old at an onshore oil rig in Taranaki today remains unexplained.