Stories by Katie Todd

Christchurch Hospital's new Acute Services Building finally has an opening date of 16 November after two years of delays and going at least $80 million over budget.

Lawyers say they're facing a deluge of separation enquiries as relationships buckle under the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Witnesses have recalled the traumatic early moments of the 2017 Port Hills fire in the High Court in Christchurch today.

Amid dwindling numbers of international visitors, a novel attraction is helping to lure Aucklanders to their city's most popular landmark. Video

Auckland Transport's $47 million plan to upgrade the only road in and out of Devonport could be dead in the water. Video

A Te Anau farmer accused of slashing and burning down 800 hectares of native forest in two years has been served with an interim court order to stop.

It took WorkSafe nearly 11 months to make any contact with some Christchurch residents neighbouring a home destroyed in a gas explosion last July.

The Tahr Foundation says it was "completely unaware" the phrase was often used in reference to the Christchurch mosque attacks.

Eager fans of the New Zealand Army Band queued for 90 minutes before the Christchurch Town Hall doors swung open yesterday, for the first show at the venue since lockdown.

Tweaks to tobacco laws will see stricter rules at the border from next week and it is hoped that will help snuff out cigarette smuggling and tobacco tax evasion.

A Dairy Flat resident says a tornado last night sounded like a plane crashing into her house, while another this morning hit industrial buildings in East Tamaki.

As the Black Lives Matter movement sweeps the consumer market, Afghan biscuits, Eskimo Pie ice cream, and Chicos and Red Skins lollies are getting new identities on supermarket shelves.

A ship carrying a controversial fertiliser product has had a frosty reception from protesters in the Canterbury port town of Lyttelton this afternoon.

Three mayors and thousands of road users are hoping to overturn a snow chain ban across Arthur's Pass, or come to a compromise with the Transport Agency.

West Coast residents say plastic waste is becoming strewn along their beaches, because councils haven't monitored a landfill near Fox Glacier that spilled into floodwater last March. Video

More than 50 people who had a tough time during the Covid-19 lockdown are getting a free weekend of respite at Waihi Beach's two Top 10 Holiday Parks.

As the country turns its eyes to life under level 1, confusion reigns over the future of contact tracing at hospitality businesses.

Air quality sensors have been set up every 100 metres in Arrowtown, in what is believed to be the world's densest air monitoring network.

Some businesses in tourism hot spots have had to turn away much-needed customers over the long weekend, to maintain social distancing requirements. Audio

Some of the country's major summer music festivals are nearly sold out, despite organisers being unable to lock in their line-ups while the borders remain shut.

Sex workers say they are struggling to balance the privacy of their clients with the need to record contact tracing information.

Christchurch's historic Isaac Theatre Royal could face permanent closure if staff are not able to recoop "crippling" running costs.

Two-thirds of Canterbury businesses feel their future remains on a knife-edge, in a sobering new survey gauging the effects of Covid-19 restrictions.

As Chinese zoos and aquariums grapple with new bans on wildlife trade, a New Zealand tech entrepreneur is seeing unexpected interest in her latest project.

The Blood Service is collecting plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients, to help other people fight off the virus.