Authentic Kiwi baches where you can escape without leaving the city boundaries.

With the beach a short dawdle away even the pooch is in paradise.

Think you have a way with words? Put your talent to good use and enter our caption competition - and don't forget to check back for the latest photos.

Experiencing Pakiri Beach on horseback is an ideal way to spend a summer's day.

Queues of New Year's Eve traffic are beginning to build around the country.

The deaths of a teen riding on the back of a truck and a motorcylist this afternoon have brought the holiday road toll to five, while a serious crash stalled holiday traffic through Warkworth, north of Auckland.

A diver failed to resurface after going underwater north of Kawau Island and has not been seen for several hours.

In her work as an event stylist, Sonia Couling can let her imagination run wild, and that approach has helped her when it comes to decorating her Warkworth home.

For years, families have dropped off chickens that no longer lay or are no longer loved at the State Highway 1 carpark. Now, cars are pulling up for another reason: to kidnap the wild chooks.

A shortened trip between Auckland and Warkworth makes the stop at Plume all the more worthwhile.

Make sure you have empty stomachs if you take the family out west to visit Helensville and South Head, writes Rachel Grunwell.

A new book by Shane Boocock features the best of adventure tourism in Auckland.

A new enterprise at Kaipara gives city folk the chance to reconnect with the countryside during a three-day walk, writes Catherine Smith.

Fresh air, exercise, great scenery and dinner potentially waiting on the line. Diana Clement goes kayak fishing.

Adri Noom has been told the proposed Puhoi-to-Wellsford highway route runs right through his house near Warkworth.

One person was killed and two critically injured when a car collided with a school bus near Kumeu, west of Auckland, this afternoon.