An 8-year-old girl lost her mother and was seriously injured when a freight train hit the family's ute, flinging it 20 metres.

When rhododendron and world music festivals are the main drawcards to Taranaki, you could be forgiven for thinking the region has traded its wild west coast image for an altogether more hippy vibe.

A Taranaki woman has found over $400,000 at the bottom of her handbag in the form of an old Lotto ticket that she had forgotten to check.

Christchurch's Boxing Day aftershocks and the recent wet weather have seen more than 1000 claims lodged with the Earthquake Commission.

Water is one thing NZ has plenty of. So why don't we manage it better - for the economy and the environment? Nick Smith* reports.

Methane gas has long been identified as a potential problem for the Pike River Coal mine, as rescuers scramble to find up to 27 missing miners.

Five months after Irish No 8 Jamie Heaslip brazenly kneed the All Blacks captain in the back, McCaw barely recalls the incident ahead of presumably their next encounter