There's more to this town than pretty parks and coastal walks, writes Susan Strongman.

Eight months after HSBC Holdings unveiled a $100 billion bet on Asia, crashing commodity prices and a slowing Chinese economy are checking Stuart Gulliver's ambitions.

A paraglider pilot injured after crashing into rocks at a New Plymouth beach remains in a stable condition in hospital.

The 27-year-old was killed just after 1pm near Weymouth Street while walking on the city's popular coastal walkway.

Locals have their favourite tracks and are happy to point Donna McIntyrein the right direction.

A self-confessed porn addict who recorded people as they went to the toilet in New Plymouth, can now be named.

Stephen and Maureen Doy got a shock when they checked out their favourite whitebait possie in readiness for the opening of the season later this month.

A man is dead after he was thrown from an inflatable boat on the Waitara River mouth in Taranaki earlier today.

A real estate agent rented a house to a colleague at a discounted rate and paid the difference so he could use its garage for storage - without the owners' knowledge.

A man is dead after crashing a car through a bridge barrier and plummeting onto a car park.

A New Plymouth retail store sacked shop assistant Ericia Durning after she took home a car magazine without permission last year.

A young New Plymouth man was left “speechless” after discovering a section of Pohutakawa tree had fallen on onto his new car.

A police response to an aggravated burglary in which a man died after he was Tasered, shot and beaten has been labelled "unplanned and uncoordinated".

Firefighters are working to control a blaze at a hay shed in New Plymouth this morning.

A New Plymouth bed and breakfast owner has been ordered to stop filming his neighbour and pay $7000 compensation by the Human Rights Tribunal.

NZ First leader Winston Peters has warned "separatism is coming to a council near you" .

A rest home company and an inexperienced graduate nurse have been faulted over the death of an elderly woman from dehydration and other disorders.

Named for Plymouth in England, where many of the early colonial settlers came from. Taranaki is Maori for shining mountain.

A cleaner who reportedly told her boss she would send someone to him and the visit "wouldn't be nice" if he did not pay her was wrongly fired, the ERA has found.

An elderly couple who died after they were hit by a car while crossing a Taranaki highway yesterday have been named by police.