Wellington Region

There were 30,000 lightning strikes throughout NZ on Thursday, MetService says.

Rosie Morunga also admitted unrelated shoplifting at supermarkets and retail stores.

Metlink says it has organised a limited number of bus replacements, but people should arrange alternative transport.

The Retirement Village Association conference was being held inside the Tākina convention centre at the time.

Ticketholders were told on Tuesday Home Brew will now be playing at Massey University.

A majority of city councillors are now against the sale of the council's shares in Wellington Airport, casting doubt on an earlier decision to sell.

The regional council had already decided to create a special ward, but the coalition government has forced it to hold a poll on the issue.

Drax Project were set to be the first artists to take the stage.

A Muslim leader says it's so far from the truth, when he first heard about it he thought he was being pranked. But a supporter of the flyer says otherwise.

There are no other wild populations on the mainland as they're heavily impacted by habitat loss, disease and predation.

Growing up in Wellington, in full Lord of the Rings fever in the early 2000s, Leon Wadham had no inkling how much part of Tolkien's world he'd one day be. Video, Audio

The pamplets make claims about council spending, speed limits, and the broadcasting of Islamic calls to prayer. Audio

More of the country may be in for downpours heading into the last week of winter. Audio

For the past two years, the Upper Hutt community of Katherine Mansfield Drive had been fighting to keep chainsaws away from a stand of beech trees.

About 60 homes are still without power, in a day that has seen parts of the lower North Island inundated with water.

The wet weather is targeting Mount Taranaki with up to 80mm of rain expected early on Tuesday morning.

Water is back on in the Wellington suburb of Karori, but there is an outage in a number of streets in the city's northern suburbs.

A Masterton council staffer sold a plaque to a scrapyard, despite it being entrusted to the archive, sparking an internal investigation.

The benefits of providing alcohol-dependent men with a safe haven have surprised a city mission. Audio

Disorganised recruitment of driver testing officers by NZTA has left one driving instructor thousands of dollars out of pocket and another at a loose end, the instructors say. Audio