Two men are dead following a crash between a motorcycle and a truck just south of Tauranga this morning.

In the development heyday of the 1950s, holiday homes shot up on narrow, sandy fingers of land around New Zealand's coastline.

Liquor bans are in place and police numbers are being boosted in many of the traditional New Year's Eve hot spots.

A 6-year-old girl was found home alone in her Tauranga house yesterday after both of her parents had left for work.

Lifeguards have closed Mt Maunganui beach after a surfer's close encounter with a shark.

A mother dog howled all night after she fished her six dead puppies out of an estuary after they had been dumped in a shopping bag.

The family who adopted Trooper - the puppy that was rescued after being found outside the Gate Pa shops, in Tauranga, with its ears chopped off - say he is settling in to his new home very well.

Santa Claus is coming to town - and the weather is looking fantastic for his long ride down from the North Pole.