It cost $290million to develop but almost five years after it was ripped apart by a deadly explosion, bit by bit the Pike River Mine site has been dismantled as the Department of Conservation waits in the wings ready to resume ownership of the site.
The Department of Conservation says without Gary Aburn, the kakapo might be functionally extinct. Last week, Gary went home to Whataroa to die. He conducted one last interview with Greymouth Star reporter Laura Mills.
A conservationist has withdrawn his support for an upcoming petrel festival because he does not want the money spent on a platform for viewing the birds.
Revelations on Thursday that the West Coast Regional Council has secretly invested $500,000 in a company looking to manufacture 1080 poison in Canterbury were yesterday met with howls of protest and accusations of conflicts of interest.
Staff at the Beachfront Hotel in Hokitika have been offered support after a Canterbury visitor who had been socialising at the hotel with his wife and friends fell 16m from the balcony to his death on Saturday night.
Queensland's chief inspector of mines will take up a temporary role at the Department of Labour as it struggles to find someone to fill the New Zealand role permanently.
Pike River Mine health and safety manager Neville Rockhouse resigned twice - and turned grey in the face after one management meeting - the Royal Commission of Inquiry heard today.
Pike River Coal's "main man'' left the mine shortly before the November 2010 blasts after two unsatisfactory performance reviews, the Royal Commission of Inquiry has been told.
A veteran English coalminer was so appalled at the inexperienced, over-confident young Pike River miners that he left - telling his wife "that mine is going to go''.
A mining consultant sent to audit the Pike River Mine found the company was dysfunctional, under serious financial pressure, and its own staff were suspicious.
Pike River Coal's former hydro mining co-ordinator was previously the under-manager at two Australian mines that exploded, killing 23 men.
The Department of Labour inspector who visited the Pike River Mine had no experience in hydro mining, the mining method described today as a "prime suspect'' in the fatal November 19 explosion.
Mines inspectors were never shown Pike River Coal's log books, which recorded soaring methane levels and gas sensors that had allegedly been tampered with before the November 19 explosion.
Smoking bins being installed at the Greymouth railway station are being partly funded by British American Tobacco.
A nanny listened helplessly outside to the sound of a six-year-old girl screaming "no mummy, no'' as her mother rained slaps on the child's back and buttocks, the Greymouth District Court heard yesterday.
Only four hours after the Pike River blast, Mines Rescue believed all 29 men trapped underground were dead. It took police five days to reach the same conclusion.
The top policeman who fronted the Pike River rescue made a tearful apology to families, and said he was personally gutted at some of their criticisms of him, during the Royal Commission of Inquiry in Greymouth today.
The policeman in charge of the Pike River Mine rescue used Google to learn about Mines Rescue, and has admitted he did not know at the time that Mines Rescue experts believed most men would have died almost immediately.
Pike River families were not told a fire was blazing underground and were given false hope their men could emerge safely and hungry, their lawyer told the Royal Commission of Inquiry in Greymouth today.
Police were today quizzed over their lack of expertise at a hearing into the Pike River mine disaster.
