DOC staff have killed 10 pilot whales which survived the stranding of a pod of 24 in Parengarenga harbour in the Far North.

A set of "absolutely disgusting" toilets at the entrance to one of New Zealand's best short walks has drawn complaints that they are a blight on tourism.

Handing Department of Conservation campgrounds to private companies to run will turn them into "canvas subdivisions", says Labour's tourism spokesman Kelvin Davis.

DoC is in talks about handing over camping grounds to private companies to run them at a profit.

Auckland is home to more than 50 volcanic cones and craters. Diana Clement explores just a few.

A row over developing Coromandel's Kennedy Bay could be solved by the sort of compromise proposed for nearby New Chums, one of the parties says.

Police Commissioner Howard Broad has announced police are all but giving up hope of recovering the remains of the 29 Pike River miners.

Four adult whales have died after beaching themselves at Port Waikato but Conservation Department staff have successfully refloated a fifth.

The heads of police and the Department of Conservation will deliver news in person today to the families of the 29 dead workers in the Pike River mine.

Greedy campers are rorting the Department of Conservation online booking system to give themselves more room.

With a tent and an airbed packed into his Mercedes-Benz, Jurgen Karl Ahrens made the New Zealand outdoors his home.

Who are we really fighting for access to our beaches? Herald journalist Yvonne Tahana and photographer Richard Robinson took to the road to find out...

Police and DOC investigations are continuing into the massacre of fur seals at Ohau Point, a popular seal viewing point 22km north of Kaikoura.

More signs will be installed at Rotorua's Kuirau Park as a safety measure following the death of a 10-year-old boy last week.

A whale that washed up last week around 40km north of Muriwai beach on Auckland's west coast will be left to rot, the Department of Conservation says.

When Mandy Hague went to White Island to count seals, she had no idea she would get a photo of a mako shark leaping from the water.

White string across the Coromandel's iconic Cathedral Cove rock archway has failed to stop visitors from posing for photos.

Visitors heading for Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel this year should take care when walking through the cove's iconic archway, the Department of Conservation (DOC) warned today.

Warm early summer seas around northern NZ are attracting increasing numbers of sharks.

A Russian billionaire has been given permission to build a 233m walkway along an untouched Northland coastline to get better access to his fishing boat.

Calls from the public about a mass seal slaughter near Kaikoura are drying up, while the killers remain at large.

A proposal to put the iconic New Chums Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula into public ownership through a private-public deal is being considered by the Department of Conservation.