Peter de Graaf

It's the smallest winner to date, the first freshwater fish to take out the title, and so obscure it was only discovered in 1998.

Harley Ra hooked the winning fish on Saturday, the final day of the five-day surfcasting contest.

The winner of the $30,000 Ninety Mile Beach Snapper Bonanza has a few tips.

McCallum Brothers have applied for fast-track consent to mine up to 8 million cubic metres over 35 years.

But an expert warns the true figures could be higher than reported.

Ferzil Babu was swept off rocks east of Whangārei almost two years ago while fishing with a friend.

About 100 people are expected at Friday's blessing at Pukerau Orchard, which has been owned by Ngāti Hine Forestry Trust since 2018.

The ceremony on a Bay of Islands hilltop at dawn tomorrow aims to preserve the memory of a war that changed New Zealand history.

A series of tremors shook Kerikeri this week.

Annual monitoring since 2017 has shown growing variety, numbers and size of fish - with a seven-fold increase in snapper leading the resurgence. Audio

Students cut off from their high schools by a monster slip northeast of Whangārei are instead taking lessons at a temporary 'education hub' set up at a local primary school.

The crash came on the same day Northland police issued a stark warning about the dangers of dirt bikes on urban streets.

The crash has highlighted the danger of dirt bikes being used on city streets - and an alarming trend of riders taking young children for high-speed joyrides, almost always without helmets.

About 60 people, many carrying banners and flags, took part in this morning's leg of a six-day hīkoi through Kerikeri's town centre.

The active slip is complicating efforts to reopen the road which serves a number of east coast communities.

Carpets of caulerpa, described as the world's worst marine pest, have mysteriously disappeared on a massive scale in Northland and the Hauraki Gulf. Audio

Crewmate Rebecca Gmuer-Hornell, from Northland, is also believed to have broken Sir Peter Blake's 1994 record for circumnavigating the globe.

A nail-biting, mostly single-lane gravel road will remain the key lifeline linking the storm-battered Northland town of Ōakura with the outside world for the next eight to 14 weeks.

Temporary repairs to a washed-out bridge on Northland's east coast have restored road access to an area largely cut off from the outside world since last Sunday.

Punaruku's Ōtetao Reti Marae led the response to last week's storm, providing shelter, food and power to a community cut off by flooding and slips.

Residents of Northland's Ōakura Bay say they could be cut off for days after major slips obliterated the road to Whangārei.

A woman rescued by kayak from the deck of her home says she has never seen flooding like it.

A precautionary state of emergency is already declared for the Whangārei District as large areas of the country brace for more bad weather on Wednesday.

The torrential rain sent floodwaters pouring through the Whangaruru campground and triggered a 50-metre-wide slip across the only access road.

The water, and lots of it, came by stealth in the dead of night.