The mother of a Wairarapa supermarket worker bashed to death in his flat says her son had planned for a quiet night in front of the television when he was attacked.

A large fire has broken out at the Masterton Medical Centre this evening.

A Wairarapa pub which tried to claim its courtesy van driver was a lonely volunteer looking for company has been ordered to pay the pensioner for his work.

An Owaka man was airlifted to Dunedin Hospital after a quad bike rolled in the Catlins yesterday.

A "severe'' 6.2 quake that hit the lower North Island today has toppled walls and chimneys and sent rockfalls across roads, with a building in Masterton red-stickered due to damage.

Grieving family members have identified the body pulled from a Wairarapa river as that of a missing 19-year-old swimmer.

Tegan Gadsby, 7, was gutted to find her early Christmas present from her nana destroyed.

Rural fire crews are satisfied a scrub fire on the South Wairarapa coast has been put out, but are checking regularly for flare-ups.

Heather Tyler finds a small town making the most of some fabulous vineyards.

Family, neighbours and firefighters fought in vain to save the life of a Masterton man they dragged near death from a blaze that gutted his sleepout late last night.

The severe earthquake which rocked NZ this afternoon sent workers in Wellington running into the streets as the ground shook and buildings swayed from side to side.

Marlborough and Wellington residents tell their stories of today's earthquake and its aftermath.

A shallow 4.2 magnitude earthquake has been detected near East Cape, after a strong aftershock near Wellington this morning.

Residents have cleared out of a central Wellington street while urgent work is carried out on a quake-damaged carpark lift which could come crashing down in an aftershock.

More than 1000 claims have been lodged with the Earthquake Commission following the swarm of quakes centred off the Seddon coast.

A brazen thief distracted staff and stole money from a young Greytown boy's fundraiser for his sick grandfather.

A mother and daughter have been winched to safety from a rocky ledge on Wairarapa's remote south coast.

A judge has commended a grieving woman and the man responsible for her partner's death during an emotional court hearing following a fatal road accident.

A Masterton couple helped to raise more than $5000 for the Grace Yeats Trust after they read a newspaper article about the Grace's Oil of Gratitude fundraising initiative last December.