Dozens of drunk drivers, many with sober passengers, were caught by police near a popular campground despite warnings and a highly visible booze bus.

A woman is dead after a crash north of Queenstown this afternoon, taking the holiday road toll to six.

More fireworks than Guy Fawkes, and plenty of Chinese lanterns, kept Bay of Plenty firefighters hugely busy last night.

More than a quarter of all fire call-outs in the past financial year were false alarms, at a cost to taxpayers of up to $25 million.

A notoriously dangerous stretch of Northland beach has claimed the life of an Auckland man trying to pull his grandchildren from a rip.

Shot in both legs, Constable Snow fell, screaming for help. One bullet severed an artery in his leg and he was bleeding to death.

A Christmas party on a luxury yacht turned tragic with the "suspicious death" of a party-goer.

Railway lines near an Auckland train station have been closed after the discovery of a person's body early today, police said.

A lethal combination of soaring temperatures and high winds gave the New South Wales bushfire season a vicious jolt with more than 80 fires raging across the state.

The sentencing of two companies and a company director over a fatal coolstore explosion in the Waikato has given firefighters closure.

Big fines and reparation bills have been given to two companies and a company director charged over last year's fatal Waikato coolstore fire.

An 11-year-old boy was trapped in a crashed car with his dead grandfather for 20 minutes yesterday.

A 6-year-old girl was crushed to death before her father's eyes yesterday after her quadbike rolled.

An investigation is underway after a unmanned fire truck took off from a station and ended up down a bank metres short of a house.

New specialist traffic officers will be used to issue speeding tickets, freeing police to concentrate on fighting crime.