A man has died following a forestry accident in Nelson today.

Police were notified around 10:10am when the man was injured in the forestry area, off Trass Valley Road.

The man was taken to hospital by helicopter where he died shortly after.

The Anderson Park Playground is now (unofficially) open - just in time for the second week of the school holidays.

Hundreds of aspiring cyber-crime fighters tackled a range of increasingly tough tasks, hacking drones and saving the planet during the 2018 NZ Cyber Security Challenge.

Westerly winds will prevail over the country on Monday, creating quite a contrast between the showery, wet, west and dry, sunny, east. In fact in the South Island rain will be persistent rain along the western side for the rest of today.

The Far North District Council has temporarily closed Oruru Community Hall in Peria due to serious deterioration of the building structure.

A recent inspection of the hall, also known as Swamp Palace, has confirmed the building is unsafe and could pose a risk to hall users.

"ACC medical advisors are poised to walk off the job tomorrow because they’ve had a gutsful of their employer’s cavalier approach to their pay, conditions and well-being," says Lloyd Woods, a Senior Industrial Officer at the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS).

The Insurance Council is advising people affected by the flooding in Auckland, Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty this weekend to contact their insurer or broker as soon as possible.

A research collaboration is proposing an alternative to Predator Free 2050, calling the current policy "badly designed and unachievable".

Waitemata Police have arrested a person following an investigation into three bank robberies in West Auckland in the past month.

Milder air flows may lock in a warmer than average second half to July according to WeatherWatch.co.nz forecasters with temperatures a few to several degrees above average at times.