Stories by Lois Williams

Huhana Lyndon says the vandalism might be linked to her recent support for Māori wards in Whangarei District Council.

Conservationists in the very Far North are sounding the alarm over the expansion of the avocado industry and its demands for water.

Two Northland councils have again rejected the option of Māori wards, though neither has any Māori councillors.

Northland timber millers are praising the new government's plans to invest in forestry.

There's elation at Waitangi over New Zealand First's choice to go into government with Labour.

Thirty years on, a company growing trees on marginal Māori land has made $73m in profit and paid back a government loan with interest. Audio

Two trustees of a Māori-owned forest in the Far North have been charged with a million-dollar fraud.

He Korowai Trust in the Far North, which has been housing the homeless, has won a $2 million grant to set up the Sweet-As Academy to teach trades to people who have not had formal education.

Kaipara District Councillors are stunned by the sudden resignation of the mayor Greg Gent, who was a year into his first term.

Research into kauri die-back is now at the point where decisions can be made about treating sick kauri in state forests, the scientist leading the research says.

It was once a thriving town where almost everyone had a steady job.

Local Māori and conservationists have claimed the right to access a Northland river today - by driving though the middle of a working dairy farm.

The land around the pipeline break was dug over two to three years ago, neighbours say.

Crews have been working around the clock for four days to fix the ruptured major fuel pipeline - but the repair job is too hazardous to be rushed, Refining NZ says.

Northland ratepayers should not have to foot the bill for an appeal against a High Court decision over unlawful rates, a former Far North politician says.

The new owners of a Far North campground have pulled out of an agreement to lease a beachfront reserve, after a peaceful protest by locals.

The tussle for Te Tai Tokerau this election has two old rivals shaping up for the seat: Mana's Hone Harawira versus Labour's Kelvin Davis.

A pupil with a cleft palate has finally been approved for help with speech therapy - but only after his mother and the school went public, a Northland principal says.

Peace appears to have broken out at a hui in Northland aimed at mending the rifts caused by the Ngāpuhi mandate row.

A Northland District Court judge is finding about 90 percent of the cases he hears involve drug addiction, he says.

Diving pioneer and environmentalist Wade Doak is backing calls for a high-tech survey of the wreck of the Niagara, off Northland's east coast.

Conservationists and salvage experts say it risks an oil spill four times worse than the Rena, but Maritime New Zealand is unconvinced.

Locals are planting 20,000 native trees this winter to stop sediment reaching the stricken harbour and harming its kaimoana.

The neighbour of a Whangarei woman who lay dead in her bedsit - possibly for weeks - says authorities need to explain why no-one knew. Audio