Hidden at the very top of New Zealand’s Coromandel Peninsula and accessible only by off-road track is the Mahana commune. Founded in 1978, for nearly 40 years its inhabitants have been elusive. Their story has gone largely unreported. But now, parts of the utopian dream are turning sour. We visit Arthur, one of the remaining members of Mahana, to learn about his reclusive life, his battles with other residents, and his hopes of seeing the valley returned to its past glory.

The Mountain Stone Weta, boasts perhaps the most extraordinary survival technique of all - the ability to come back from the dead. With the aid of a specialized filming chamber we are able to witness stunning footage of life slowly returning to this frozen insect.

Penguin populations around the world are in decline and now New Zealand's Yellow-eyed penguins slip toward extinction. At their rate of decline, Yellow-eyed penguins will vanish from the Otago Peninsula of New Zealand in about 40 years.

Researchers say the discovery could provide a significant new energy source

New Zealand plans to scrap the crime of blasphemy following calls for reform in response to a Garda investigation into British actor and comedian Stephen Fry. David Seymour, leader of ACT, a minor opposition party, who has instigated the move, said politicians of all stripes wanted to end what they saw as an archaic curb of freedom of speech. “New Zealanders cherish the fact that we have strong separation between church and state,” he told AFP.

More than 600 state schools teach Christianity, but not other religions. Zac Fleming investigates what schools offer religious education and what is taught.

Critics often used this argument to counter the push for indigenous rights but now it’s clear I am a full-blooded Māori. And there will be others

Two young boys are to receive routine vaccinations after the High Court overruled the objections of their vegan mother. The mother - who is so opposed to everyday medicines that she refuses to give her sons Calpol liquid paracetamol - was ordered by a judge to allow the injections to go ahead, according to Daily Mail.

There are fears a decision to allow oil drilling off the Taranaki coast could spell disaster for New Zealand's rare Māui dolphins. Thirty-five percent of the dolphins' habitat is to be opened up to exploration, and Green Party MP Gareth Hughes says it's a reckless move. "We're talking about more than 2000km squared. We know that the seismic surveys, the oil rigs, the risk of oil spills could be catastrophic for the species.

Attache in US embassy in Wellington is wanted for questioning over incident in which he suffered a broken nose

The shooting of a trainee bomb-detecting puppy at the Auckland, New Zealand, airport provoked surprise and outage Friday. Animal rights activists and other dog lovers condemned the actions of police after Grizz, a 10-month-old border collie and German shorthair pointer cross, was shot and killed Thursday morning when he escaped his handler, Noel Thorburn, and roamed airport runways for three hours. Sixteen flights were delayed Friday as airport employees attempted to capture him.

Grizz shot dead by police after escaping to airfield at 4am, delaying flights as pilots refused to take off while he was loose

Kim Dotcom's legal team said the rest of the charges against him should be dropped.

A New Zealand court ruled on Monday that internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom could be extradited to the United States to face charges relating to his Megaupload website, which was shutdown in 2012 following an FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion. "I'm no longer getting extradited for copyright. We won on that. I'm now getting extradited for a law that doesn't even apply,"

Indian amateur photographer Akhil Suhas gains thousands of Instagram followers with his quirky holiday project

Kids are frequently taught that seven continents exist: Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

A dead pilot whale lies on a sandbank after one of the country's largest recorded mass whale strandings, in Golden Bay, at the top of New Zealand's South Island. REUTERS/Anthony Phelps

New Zealand conservation authorities said 240 pilot whales that were stranded overnight at a remote bay which only days earlier had a larger beaching refloated themselves on Sunday and were swimming offshore “We had 240 whales strand yesterday in the afternoon and we were fearful we were going to end up with 240 dead whales this morning,” Herb Christophers, a Department of Conservation spokesman said.

A new pod of 240 whales swam aground at a remote New Zealand beach on Saturday just hours after weary volunteers managed to refloat a different group of whales following an earlier mass stranding. In total, more than 650 pilot whales have beached themselves along a 5 kilometer (3 mile) stretch of coastline over two days on Farewell Spit at the tip of the South Island. About 335 of the whales are dead, 220 remain stranded, and 100 are back at sea.

New Zealand has regained its top spot in a global watchdog's rundown of the most corruption-free countries in the world. Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-corruption organisation, uses World Bank data, the World Economic Forum and other institutions to rank 176 countries by perceived levels of corruption. New Zealand and Denmark were jointly ranked as the two least corrupt nations but the watchdog warned about the rise of populism risking greater corruption around the world.