New Zealand plans to ban cosmetic products containing tiny plastic particles known as microbeads from July next year because of the risk they pose to aquatic and marine environments.

A New Zealand man and his six-year old daughter missing at sea for more than a month have landed in Australia after sailing their small, damaged yacht across the treacherous 2,000 km (1,241.7 miles) Tasman Sea. Alan Langdon, 46, and his daughter Que had planned a short journey from Kawhia to the Bay of Islands on New Zealand's east coast, but after a storm damaged the yacht's rudder they found themselves drifting out to sea.

Ringed by golden beaches and temperate Pacific seas, Kaitaia is unconscionably pretty, dotted with flaming red pohutukawa trees and blessed by year-round blue skies. The town of 5,000 people on the northern tip of New Zealand’s North Island should be known as a holiday resort, but instead it has been dubbed the murder capital of New Zealand after four homicides and six suicides in a single year.

New Zealand locals reportedly flocked to Muriwai Beach yesterday, to catch a glimpse of the so-called Muriwai Monster - a sprawling mass that looks exactly like something you’d drag up from the depths of the ocean.

Key said he had no immediate future plans, but told reporters he would stay in parliament long enough to avoid a by-election for his seat

We go inside a prison to tell the stories of the Maori men living their lives "behind the wire".

Military personnel assisting in the wake of last week's monster earthquake have completed their buzziest mission yet, rescuing a Kaikoura man's 30,000 bees. The New Zealand Defence Force have been helping to evacuate people and protect their possessions in the aftermath of last week's magnitude 7.8 quake. About 900 Kaikoura residents have been rescued, and now 30,000 insects can be added to that list.

Three New Zealand cows were saved Tuesday from an eerie island of grass where they had been stranded after an earthquake obliterated their pasture. The plight of the cattle — two adults and a calf — captured international attention Monday night after footage shot from a helicopter showed them looking bewildered on an outcrop surrounded by mini-cliffs of mud. A geologist told Newshub, which filmed the video, that the cows had likely “surfed” the land as it shifted beneath them.

When being remote becomes an advantage. By Emma O’Brien. (Nov. 2, 2016)

Travel bloggers captured incredible video of glowworms—and avoided eels—in New Zealand’s Waitomo Caves.

Stories of insurance companies refusing to pay out have existed for about as long as insurance companies themselves. Yet few can be as surprising, elaborate, or involve as many bizarre details as the case of British expat Christopher Robinson and the fire that destroyed his $1.6 million mansion in New Zealand. Mr Robinson, in his late sixties, moved to a remote part of North Island near Kerikeri with his wife and two children in 2005.

In Bungled Spying Operation, NSA Targeted Pro-Democracy Campaigner. How a middle-aged pro-democracy activist was falsely accused of terrorism and placed on a top-secret NSA surveillance list. By Ryan Gallagher and Nicky Hager.

Kim Dotcom’s extradition appeal with the New Zealand High Court isn’t far off now, with a planned six weeks set aside for the hearing. Because of international interest in it, Dotcom has requested it be live streamed around the world, but the government wants to stop that and has counter-requested that the court not allow it.

A pristine beach in New Zealand bought through a crowdfunding campaign has been handed to its new owners - the public. Nearly 40,000 people donated almost NZ$2.3m (£1.3m, $1.7m) to buy the Awaroa beach in the Abel Tasman National Park, on the South Island. Campaigners snubbed a businessman who offered them money in exchange for private access to part of the beach. The seven-hectare site will now be run by a national park. The previous owner, businessman Michael Spackman, agreed to sell the beach after the online crowdfunding campaign reached its target in a little more than three weeks.

One owner who set up a Facebook group to search for pet Moses uncovers a peculiar and unsettling trend in suburbs of Timaru

Scientists say they've discovered a magma buildup near a New Zealand town that explains a spate of recent earthquakes and could signal the beginnings of a new volcano—although they're not expecting an eruption anytime soon.

Sixteen-year-old Canny Mochrie's parents go away on a vacation, so they send her off on a trip of her own with her step-brother Sholto and his opinionated girlfriend Susan, who are interviewing the survivors of a strange coal mine disaster and researching local folklore in 1959 Southland, New Zealand. Canny is left to herself to wander in a mysterious and enchanting nearby valley, occupied almost entirely by children who all have the last name Zarene and can perform a special type of magic that

A pair of European backpackers were involved in an unusual incident last Wednesday night at Uretiti Beach, close to Waipu in the Northland Region of New Zealand.

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster holds its first legally recognised marriage, hailing the NZ ceremony a world-first. The first couple to "tie the noodly knot".

As an icon of Kiwi occultism goes up for sale, Greg Roughan delves into the bizarre history behind Auckland’s Temple of Higher Thought – and its links with Havelock North’s strangest secret. By Greg Roughan.