Taranaki

Ruapehu district businesses and health services are bracing for the long-term closure of the main highway between Whanganui and Raetihi.

State Highway 3 in South Taranaki is open again after closing due to a serious crash this morning.

"Functionally" extinct in Egmont National Park 20 years ago - the population of whio on Mt Taranaki has grown to such an extent that they are taking up residence outside the park.

Eels in two Taranaki streams are expected to be contaminated with firefighting foam chemicals for many years.

In an upstairs room at a New Plymouth lifestyle block, a scientist is helping colleagues fly drones into volcanic craters half a world away in Papua New Guinea.

A New Plymouth councillor is wondering what the council is trying to hide after it refused to release emails written by the mayor and senior staff about him.

More than a third of exposed sewerage pipes criss-crossing New Plymouth streams and rivers have failed a risk assessment that measures the threat of discharge.

A survey has found a big jump in the number of flesh-footed shearwater birds (toanui) on an island off New Plymouth.

The New Plymouth District Council is blaming a sewer pipe blockage on a 60-tonne piece of fat.

Taranaki's tourism earnings are set for an annual boost of about $4 million a year after confirmation of a $13.3 million Provincial Growth Fund investment in Egmont National Park.

The number of freshwater samples at Taranaki swimming holes reaching an "alert" or "action" status for contamination last summer continues poor run of results for the region.

One person has died following a crash in South Taranaki.

A Stratford woman, who as a teenager was the youngest person in the country diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, is getting behind the message that the provinces are missing out on neurology services.

Port Taranaki and Dunedin Airport have confirmed how much of the banned firefighting foam they are trying to dispose of.

A former New Plymouth mayor who campaigned for a Māori ward on the council is sceptical that a new voting system being used this year will return a more diverse group of councillors.

The Environmental Protection Authority is monitoring disposal at Dunedin Airport and Taranaki Port has been told to address its stocks.

The first leaseholder has taken ownership of property under the Waitara Lands Act, but not everyone is happy with the scheme.

A rough sleeper in Hawera described as harmless has unwittingly found himself front and centre of the South Taranaki mayoralty race.

Taranaki Cathedral is selling off most of its wooden pews to make way for new flexible seating, but the original donors get first chance to buy.