It was the 20th century California Dream: a suburban home, a flash car to get you to and from work and a freewheeling lifestyle. But the dream's flipside was a nightmarish sprawl with an unsustainable footprint.

Senior legal figures do not believe there is a problem with the number of drink-drivers before the courts who receive a discharge without conviction.

Judges let off around 50 people a year for drink-driving - with reasons ranging from models wanting to work overseas and wannabe police officers and nannies.

Frustrated commuters are calling for a change in retail working hours after a motorway crash caused gridlock across Auckland.

Inner-city Auckland traffic was brought to a virtual standstill after a motorway crash - gridlock that the Automobile Association described as the worst it had seen.