Police have this afternoon located a body in the Whanganui River.

While formal identification is yet to take place, police believe it is the man who failed to surface near Upokongaro yesterday.

His body was located in the Mosquito Point area.

A pair of kea, a native parrot most often associated with alpine environments, have been spotted at Ross Beach, south of Hokitika on the West Coast.

The two juvenile kea were spotted by a Ross local playing on a tree stump.

The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, has paid tribute to well-known New Zealand author, journalist and broadcaster, Gordon McLauchlan following Mr McLauchlan’s death today.

A few showers are likely this week in New Zealand's driest regions but once again the bulk of the rain is falling in places that don't care for much more.

ZEALANDIA is honoured to be one of the finalists in the Mitre 10 Community of the Year category in the New Zealander of the Year Awards 2020.

The New Zealander of the Year Awards Office is pleased to announce the three finalists being considered for the 2020 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year award.

They are:

Jennifer Ward-Lealand Te Atamira: actress and te reo Māori me ngā tikanga advocate (Auckland)

In the light of the Australian bush fires and the devestation caused there, we need to ensure a similar situation doesn't happen here in New Zealand. While on the face of it, the appalling fires seem to be hard to understand, the links between them and climate change are there.

Hawke’s Bay Police have this evening made two further arrests in relation to the firearms incident in Taradale on Sunday 19 January.

A 39-year-old man and 27-year-old woman were arrested at an address in Flaxmere.

Two firearms were also located and seized.

Police are appealing for sightings of a missing 78-year-old woman in Counties Manukau.

Yueqing Gao was last seen at her Farm Cove home about 9am today.

She was wearing a white, pink and black jacket, light-coloured pants, blue shoes and a dark pink cap.

Countdown will remove plastic produce bags and more than a tonne of other plastic from three of its stores in February, in a ten-week test to see what else can be done to further reduce plastic in the produce section long-term.