Quick-witted rescuers scrawled a line in the beach to point others to the site of a helicopter crash.

In a scene straight out of a desert island castaway story, a line scrawled in the beach pointed rescuers to a helicopter crash in the sea near Whangarei today, helping save a pilot's life.

A 23-year-old man has been taken to hospital after being pulled from the sea after his helicopter crashed off the Northland coast. He was the pilot and only occupant of the chopper and escaped with minor injuries.

An air search has started off the Northland coast after reports an aircraft may have crashed into the sea.

A dolphin known as 'Potato' has been spotted swimming in Whangarei harbour with a dead calf on her fins.

After 54 hours in the open, missing 90-year-old June Wickman was found alive by her grandsons yesterday, amazing rescuers.

A con-artist has taken thousands of dollars from Northland shops in a sophisticated Eftpos scam. Police say the scam - involving a fake courier - is likely to have been used elsewhere in New Zealand

Police are considering charging a mother who left her baby alone in a van while she went shopping on a steaming hot Christmas Eve in downtown Whangarei.

Temperatures were in the late twenties across the top half of the north today, with the humidity making it feel more like the thirties in Auckland.

A Russian billionaire has been given permission to build a 233m walkway along an untouched Northland coastline to get better access to his fishing boat.