A claim the East Coast could become "the Texas of the south" is an overstatement, a local oil exploration expert says.

Jamie Morton and Alan Gibson arrive at the North Island's most easterly point.

Jamie Morton suffers a bruised rear-end and discovers 'hard-luck camping'.

Canadian oil company Apache has been talking up the prospects for onshore oil finds on the North Island's East Coast and is trying to play concerns about fracking and the local environment.

The uncle of a drowned toddler asks if the tragedy would have occurred if the local council was pushed harder to erect a fence.

We've rounded up some of the best events happening all over the country this long weekend.

Mt Hikurangi, the mountain of Maui, is the first place in New Zealand to see the new day.

Vicki Virtue gets high on the beauty of the first mountain in NZ to see the sun.

A tornado has devastated a farming station near Gisborne, taking out sheds and injuring at least one farm dog believed to have been picked up and dumped. Craig Ferris "huddled in a ball" in the corner of his carport...

There's nothing quite like a weekend of incredible food and wine to wash away the blues.

A youth killed in a landslide near Whakatane on Saturday was looking forward to becoming father in September.

Just over a fifth of all working-age Northlanders were on welfare benefits at the end of March.