A vicious dog bit a chunk out of a mother's arm to the bone as she stepped in to save her two young children.

Conditions on the West Coast are set to worsen over the weekend and teams would resume looking for Emily on Monday, if they could.

The search for two people whose vehicle plunged into a river near Hari Hari on the West Coast was suspended last night due to poor weather.

"He had fallen about 3m and in the process had smashed a leg and fallen into the sea ... He had been there for an hour."

Helicopter access, e-bikes and new climbing routes proposed for new Pike 29 Memorial Great Walk.

Ground was broken today on the new $76 million Greymouth Hospital, ending five months of uncertainty and four years of planning.

The Government today top-up after subcontractor prices came back higher than expected.

Givealittle page set up for retired beekeeper who was caught at the Australian border with 6kg of cocaine hidden in the lining of his bag.

An icy spat between a couple at the top of the Franz Josef Glacier yesterday nearly saw the man and woman being left out in the cold.

At least 30 road signs worth $10,000 have been vandalised or stolen in the Grey district in the past three weeks.

Some valuable discoveries have been made in time for the celebration of the life and death of famous West Coast explorer Charles Douglas.

The Greymouth fishing boat that suffered $350,000 of damage in a suspicious blaze while moored at the wharf early last week, is about to be towed to Nelson for repairs.

A Cobden teenager with substance abuse problems who burgled the Cobden Fire Station overnight on Saturday was today locked up after he was refused bail.

Wild winds sweeping the country have caused serious disruption to flight schedules, caused power outages and closed roads this evening.

A grassroots rugby team have been accused of making racist remarks about Polynesian rugby players during a local game.

A Waimakariri man who was convicted of a "lengthy and sustained sequence of extraordinarily bad and dangerous driving" was yesterday sentenced in the Greymouth District Court.

Searchers looking just north of Hokitika for one of the rarest vertebrate animals in the country have struck gold.

A Christchurch man who tried to sell his employer's car was arrested in Greymouth yesterday.

The West Coast is about to get a slew of new chief executives in key roles, with interest from overseas in the top ranking positions.

A Greymouth woman has beaten the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) following botched surgery 13 years ago.

An apparent taste for corn by a group of tourists travelling through the West Coast in Jucy Rental vehicles has resulted in them being dobbed into police.

Fire chief calls for more training for firefighters who are generally not prepared for the emotions they find when dealing with suicides.

Brad Houston was walking back to halfway after his side scored a try against Cobden-Kohinoor when he dropped to the ground.

The Blaketown pensioner charged with trafficking cocaine into Australia has been told he faces life in prison.

A pensioner arrested in Perth for importing cocaine is a retired West Coast beekeeper who used to sell honey outside the Greymouth library.

A Kiwi pensioner is in a maximum security prison in Western Australia charged with importing cocaine.

A Karamea woman charged with kidnapping and resisting arrest allegedly locked her former husband in a shipping container, a Greymouth District Court jury heard yesterday.

A drunk 14-year-old boy spent the night in the care of the Greymouth police after they found him in a "very intoxicated" state in Cobden.