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.

Transtasman kayaker Scott Donaldson has been reunited with his wife after being plucked from rough seas off the Taranaki coast this afternoon.

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.

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.

Elisabeth Easther took a quirky rail trip and has been singing the little engines' praises ever since.

The Government has just set best-practice guidelines for fracking in various parts of the country.

Police said the crash occurred just before 7.30am at the intersection of Egmont and Bishop Roads, and involved a large truck, car and motorcycle.

The family of a former New Zealand woman had pleaded with her repeatedly to leave the man who allegedly killed her in Australia.

A young mum who grew up in New Zealand was allegedly killed by her Kiwi partner in a domestic dispute in Melbourne over the weekend.

Rural adventures are reviving small-town New Zealand, writes Elisabeth Easther.

A house was destroyed by fire in the small Taranaki town of Okaiawa last night.

The two mountaineers who died on Mt Taranaki had little chance of surviving for two nights and a day in their shallow hole in the hard snow and freezing wind, says a leading local guide.

One of two climbers who died after being trapped on Mt Taranaki this weekend had texted her father saying she didn't expect to survive.

Two Auckland climbers are facing a second night in a snow cave on Mount Taranaki with no overnight equipment, after rescuers were driven back by foul weather today.