The highly anticipated opening of Swedish furniture company Ikea in New Zealand comes as a rural community worries about the fire risk from pine plantations.
MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi has been reinstated as a member of Te Pāti Māori, following an interim ruling by judge, and will attend the party's AGM this weekend.
A South Korean man who expected to be paid a few thousand dollars for smuggling rare geckos only found in Otago, Southland and Canterbury out of NZ has been jailed.
A firefighter says a corrosive product had mistakenly been used instead of detergent on a makeshift waterslide at the childcare centre in Christchurch.
An Auckland doctor based in Otara said crowded housing makes children in her community more vulnerable to the spread of measles, and is doing everything she can to make vaccinations more accessible to families.
Analysis - Writers had their fun calling it 'Coster's Last Stand', and like the general's doomed battle, it ended with a crushing fall, writes RNZ's Craig McCulloch.
The Education Ministry says early childhood services and school boards are legally responsible for funding asbestos-contaminated sand removal, after a kindergarten operator estimated a $350,000 clean-up.