A man has been arrested over the theft of plaques from war veterans' graves - some of which have been "damaged beyond repair".

The holiday road toll has risen to eight with the death of a woman in hospital yesterday.

Sexual violence and family harm victims will be living in terror that their private details could be among a cache of hacked medical information, an advocate says.

Rescue services are hanging on to hope for tramper Connor Purvis who remains lost in what has been described as "rugged and wild" country.

A man who died after becoming trapped under a vehicle in his driveway in Wānaka was elderly and living alone, the ODT has been told.

A man fighting to establish the mother and father named on his birth certificate are not his real parents has claimed he was subjected to hypnotic coercion and his mother was involved in baby-farming organised by eugenicists.

An inquest found the youth had become interested in violent pornography and had made "troubling" internet searches the day before his death.

After gathering crayfish and pāua with his mates during a dive trip at a remote South Island beach, a man took to social media with a picture of a seafood in a chiller bag and the words “30 each, big ones 50″.