Police say it will take a while to complete their investigation into the Gloriavale Christian Community after it was revealed five children were taken into CYF's care.

Punakaiki's pancake rocks are enough to make Elisabeth Easther flip out.

An alleged drug-driver was caught with a weapon and a stash of drugs after a member of the public raised concerns about her driving on a West Coast highway.

Five tourists from Asia, only in the country for a matter of hours after flying into Christchurch, crashed on a West Coast highway over the weekend.

Report from nine years ago warned Northern Buller residents to move within a decade. Problem is, residents say they never got it.

Gold mines built the town now famous for its carnivorous snails, says Elisabeth Easther.

The West Coast should be offering to take 200 Syrian refugees, says West Coast-Tasman MP, Damien O'Connor.

The worst winds since Cyclone Ita battered the West Coast last year are forecast to hit the area tomorrow - the first day of the whitebait season.

Solid Energy acting chairman Andy Coupe admitted it was "unlikely" that any sale, or sales, would cover its outstanding debt.

Drink-drivers tested police patience throughout the West Coast at the weekend.

Mr Key said Solid Energy had $300 million of outstanding debt and was in a "precarious position".

Illicit drug use is rampant in the West Coast workforce, with methamphetamine the drug of choice, according to recent tests.

More than 20 jobs will be lost when Downer closes its West Coast offices at the end of August.

Human remains were found in the rubble of the ruined remote property yesterday.

The shed was "completely destroyed" by the time the fire was discovered, police said.

Firefighters are trying to confirm if anybody was stuck inside a building on fire on the West Coast this morning.

South Island's Agassiz Glacier has been "un-named" as part of a global campaign to remove the use of the name of Agassiz, a Swiss geologist who believed not all races were created equal.

Two women seen showing "extreme intoxication" in a Greymouth bar has led to the premises losing its licence to sell alcohol.

The owner of a helicopter that "rolled over" on take-off in the mountains behind Hari Hari on Saturday, seriously injuring the pilot, does not yet know what caused the crash.

Safety inspectors are being sent to the remote site of a chopper crash which seriously injured a young pilot on the South Island's West Coast at the weekend.

A decade-long project to save endangered giant snails from a West Coast coal mine will finish next year.

Bottom-trawling fisheries have been banned from a 10,000 hectare area off the West Coast of the South Island.

Reefton police say help from quick-thinking locals helped nab four burglars who smashed their way into the service station early today.

The woman who put Gloriavale cult leader Hopeful Christian in prison says he is no man of God and labelled him a “pervert”.

The woman who put Gloriavale Christian Community guru Hopeful Christian in prison for indecent assault has had her name suppression lifted so she can tell her story.