The foreign affairs minister has landed in Solomon Islands for the first leg of his Pacific tour, and an audience with the newly elected Prime Minister.
After ensuring a young father was held at a house under the ruse of getting drugs, Sophie Skye turned up with baseball bat and launched a "brutal" 23-minute attack.
Transpower is disconnecting some North Island power assets in response to an extreme solar storm that will bring stunning views of the Aurora Australis across the country tonight.
A mother says she can never forgive a stranger who kidnapped her daughters and "destroyed" their innocence, confidence and trust by subjecting them to a terrifying ordeal.
Green building advocates say winter power cuts wouldn't be an issue if New Zealand's housing building standards were not decades behind most other countries in the OECD.