Bay Of Plenty

The contingency measures include plans to move patients to Rotorua Hospital if staff shortages forced Taupō's clinic to close. Audio

A large slip is covering both lanes of State Highway 2 near Waiotahe in the Bay of Plenty.

Speedway will continue to race at Baypark in Tauranga giving the sport "certainty and longevity".

Christopher Millen evaded police by hiding in a camouflaged bush camp for five months, stealing weapons, tools and equipment, and a sheep from nearby properties.

"People took the assumption that it was so ridiculous that it was never going to happen," one critic says.

At least two people are seriously injured after a crash in rural Bay of Plenty on Wednesday morning.

The on-demand public transport trial uses electric vans which can be ordered through an app.

Already this month an elderly person has been assaulted and a rider hit a lamppost, police say.

The decision ends the fully outsourced parking model introduced in mid-2018.

A local store owner has been threatened and her shop broken into but says having police on the streets is making a big difference.

There is a warrant out for the arrest of 34-year-old Huirua.

Parking woes in Mount Maunganui have led the council to seek out-of-the-box solutions. Audio

Taranaki and parts of the central North Island face flooding and highway closures as heavy rain returns after Thursday's deluge.

In rural Katikati, just outside Tauranga, is an "intentional living" community, where children are homeschooled and people visit to practice their shared Vedic faith.

In the five years to April, it issued 81,906 books, eight DVDs, 1018 magazines, 257 memory aids and 1234 talking books for a total of 84,423.

The approved 9.9 percent increase is down from the 12.5 percent initially proposed.