A 20 year-old man is dead after he tried jumping from a light pole into a swimming pool last night.

A young Auckland man is facing charges after he allegedly drove through a stop sign and hit a police car, causing a pile-up that wrote off three vehicles in Gisborne.

Two youths have been charged after police found 22 sheep crammed in a van in Gisborne this morning.

A sheep on an escape bid had a lucky break after it took a wrong turn and headed into the sea at Makorori.

Gisborne was never officially named Gisborne, the New Zealand Geographic Board has revealed.

The family of a pilot who has been missing since his helicopter disappeared near Nelson two days ago are going through hell, his uncle says.

The search for a missing West Coast helicopter will resume this morning but bad weather has delayed search teams.

The search for a missing West Coast helicopter will resume tomorrow.

An administrator at Bunnings Warehouse who sat through the winter months at a desk in a warehouse that got down to 6C has been awarded compensation.

Police are trying to trace the movements of a car believed to be linked to a serious baseball bat assault that put three Gisborne people in hospital with serious injuries.

A young man with critical leg injuries lay trapped in his crashed ute for more than 12 hours after his vehicle crashed down a bank and into a tree.

A Gisborne chess club depicted in the New Zealand film The Dark Horse is recreating events in the movie by trying to raise funds to get its members to a national tournament.

Two people remain hospitalised following a school bus crash on the East Coast yesterday.

Thirteen people including teenagers were injured when a school bus crashed into a ditch on State Highway 2 near Gisborne this afternoon.

The sexual abuse claims of a boy had been "clearly vindicated" and a weight lifted from his mind, a judge said as he jailed Damien Robert Banks for 15 months.

A pilot "did everything right" to land a light aircraft in a paddock after the engine failed during take-off today at Auckland's Ardmore Airport.

A man was dragged from his burning council flat by his cousin, who happened to see smoke coming from the area as he went out for a takeaway.