Northland

Tasman District Council says residents near the Motueka River from Tapawera to Riwaka should be prepared to leave quickly.

The figure was revealed to RNZ via a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request.

"It'll take not only the thief's life but the surroundings as well," one petrol station owner says.

James Parker's latest offending has been described as more serious, a judge noting it had a "sadistic flavour".

Eugene Fayerberg is not a cancer specialist, but says he and his colleagues are increasingly the ones to find cancer in patients coming into ED. Audio

The strike comes just a week after more than 200 senior doctors and dentists in Northland striked for 24 hours.

An ambitious plan to restore the health of Northland's largest lake is set to begin within a year, funding permitting.

The Northern Mystics have beaten the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic for the second time in a week but this time it was more decisive.

There's a well-known saying that justice delayed is justice denied. And in Northland, where the region is facing a growing number of homicides, the wheels of justice are getting increasingly slow.

Northland has been battered by record-breaking rain, a cyclone, a tornado and a harsh drought. So what's being done to fix the area's long-running water woes? Audio

A commissioner will be appointed to run Northland's Dargaville High School after a damning assessment by the Education Review Office.

A kapa haka group with a difference is practising furiously for its first-ever public performance in Kerikeri this Matariki weekend. Audio

The region has been hit by drought, record rainfall and a cyclone just this year.

Police say one person has died following a serious crash Saturday evening in Dargaville.

Community leaders in Moerewa are calling for a long-standing culture of doing "burnouts" to end before it ends in tragedy. Audio

The controversial Northland mayor who tried to ban karakia from council meetings will not be standing for a second mayoral term.

Nearly 30 firefighters were called to a large house fire in a small town south of Dargaville in the early hours.

Belle Mumby is accused of theft, deception and forgery.

That led the investigation team to conclude an electrical fault was the most likely cause of the fire.