A staff member at the police college near Wellington has died after getting into difficulty in the swimming pool this afternoon.

The tanker driver involved in Thursday's triple fatality in Patea has been found dead in his home, it was confirmed today.

Police are investigating a suspicious fire which started when an unknown object was thrown at a bedroom window while a family slept.

WATCH: An Epsom couple's property is overrun with 'literally thousands' of cockroaches for the third summer in a row.

Pedestrian crossings get a colourful makeover.

Rare encounter with stranded bigeye thresher shark.

The Wairarapa Balloon Festival had crowds far exceeding expectations - which would have been great if the show wasn't cancelled.

A learner driver carrying a passenger was driving more than double the posted speed limit in wet conditions when he was pulled over by police.

A Hamilton family had a lucky escape from a fire which swept through a Dinsdale house early this morning.

One of Auckland's last remaining untouched beaches is under threat of development.

A man had just jumped out of a car to close the gate when it was hit by a milk tanker, killing his partner and two others inside.

A decision has been made on the Rena wreck, with a panel ruling it can stay on the Astrolabe Reef but under strict monitoring.

A man who stabbed his wife to death and then turned the knife on those who tried to save her planned the killing six weeks earlier, a judge has ruled. Outside court Detective Inspector Kevin Hooper paid tribute to the "stoic" family of the victim, whose emotions were too raw for them to address media.

Police speak to three youths and confiscate BB gun after school bus was shot at in the Waikato town of Morrinsville.

Two dangerous criminals wanted by police are on the loose in New Zealand in relation to two separate incidents.

A handful of Upper Hutt city councillors are in the firing line after making the city a TPP-free zone.

Cristobal Pérez Salas from Chile says all he knows about Tokoroa is from Google.

Mayor hopeful doesn't care that the Prime Minister plays there.

Northland school principal caught peeping into woman's home in dead of night.

A real estate agent has been fined for failing to tell buyers their new house had been home to drug dealing. So what else do agents have to disclose?

A 54-year-old man was taken into custody after he fired a .303 rifle when police were called to a house in Carterton.

The 3-year-old girl who was inside a car stolen from a West Auckland supermarket last night is afraid of going outside in case "the baddies" come, her father says.

Drug's effects include hallucinations, erratic and aggressive behaviour, seizures and loss of consciousness.

An American tourist whose wife was killed in a crash in South Waikato is now in a stable condition in Waikato Hospital.

Stewart Brodie's assault on man in Hastings pub loses him police contract.

A two-month-old kitten has survived a hot trip from Papamoa to Auckland after stowing away under the bonnet of a car.

A man in his 60s was flown to hospital after a near-drowning at New Chums Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula this afternoon.