Matt Philp meets some of the creative talent behind Nelson's upcoming winter festival season.

Pellets laced with 1080 poison will be fed to trout to assess potential risks from the planned massive dump of the pesticide in native forests.

A woman is in a serious condition and ten children have been taken to hospital after an attack by bees or wasps on Nelson's Tahunanui Beach.

The Employment Court has awarded a salad bar worker who was unjustifiably dismissed when she was sacked by text message on her second day on the job more than $2000 towards legal costs.

Kayakers who rescued a man who fell over a waterfall near Nelson Lakes National Park today have been praised by police for their bravery.

A 5-year-old girl killed when the motorbike she was riding hit a fence may have panicked while on the machine, a coroner says.

A holidaymaker suffered a severe allergic reaction after he accidentally swallowed a bee while riding a bike in Coromandel this morning.

A Nelson man has been arrested and charged with hitting another man over the head with a spade.

The husband of a woman who died when their car plunged into a creek fought to control the car as she became unresponsive at the wheel moments before the fatal crash.

A captain of a fishing vessel in Nelson was making more than $100,000 a year and living in a state house, Housing Minister Nick Smith said last night.

A sleeping household had a lucky escape when a stolen car nearly ploughed into their Nelson bedroom.

A 7-year-old Nelson boy is in a critical condition after being hit by a school bus he walked in front of this morning, police say.

A truck laden with newspapers ignited in a dramatic fire in Canterbury early this morning.

Police are investigating a suspicious fire at a Nelson pub over the weekend - the second blaze to hit the establishment in less than a year.