Greymouth Star

Joanna Lam (24) was a woman with a ''big heart'' and an ''infectious smile'', according to her brother.

A fisherman rescued from his sinking boat near Greymouth on Friday had survived a similar incident on a vessel that caught fire three years ago.

About 150 scientists scoured Denniston Plateau at the weekend in the dead of night, and during a storm, in the hope of finding new species that could help derail plans by Perth-based Bathurst Resources to mine the plateau.

A couple travelling over the Otira Gorge in a house bus had a fright on Saturday, when the brakes failed as they descended the viaduct just below Candys Bend.

A Dunedin man and his son were involved in a fatal head-on crash that killed two people, including the father, near Haast on Wednesday.

Homes were evacuated and a street cordoned off late on Tuesday after a fake bomb was left at the door of an elderly Greymouth man.

The chairman of Pike River Coal said yesterday he was "horrified" at a litany of safety incidents at the West Coast mine, but could offer no meaningful explanation as to why they never reached his ears before the tragedy last November.

A report into what led to multiple criminal charges being laid after the Pike River mine explosions will be made public.

Peter Whittall, the face of the Pike River Coal mine disaster, will finish up as chief executive today.

The Pike River Coal mine was an "accident waiting to happen", where serious safety concerns were repeatedly flagged, but apparently not acted upon, the Royal Commission of Inquiry heard yesterday.