A con-artist has taken thousands of dollars from Northland shops in a sophisticated Eftpos scam. Police say the scam - involving a fake courier - is likely to have been used elsewhere in New Zealand

Police are considering charging a mother who left her baby alone in a van while she went shopping on a steaming hot Christmas Eve in downtown Whangarei.

Temperatures were in the late twenties across the top half of the north today, with the humidity making it feel more like the thirties in Auckland.

A Russian billionaire has been given permission to build a 233m walkway along an untouched Northland coastline to get better access to his fishing boat.