Stories by Tracy Neal

A sperm whale that beached near Nelson looked too healthy to have died of natural causes, a zoologist says.

Police focus their search in Northland after reports a vessel similar to Alan Langdon's headed in that direction.

The carcass of the sperm whale that was spotted in Nelson's Tasman Bay yesterday was found washed ashore at Rabbit Island today.

Police are working with Interpol in the search for a missing yachtsman and his young daughter, with the search for his catamaran focusing on Northland, following tips from the public.

The mother of missing 6-year-old Que Langdon - who believes she has been taken by her father Alan Langdon to avoid custody action - has hired a Child Recovery Services contractor to find them.

A man hired to find missing 6-year-old Que Langdon believes her father might be trying to sail her to Australia, or is hiding in coastal New Zealand.

Large whales spotted in Tasman Bay - an unusual sight at this time of year - are either southern right or humpbacks, say locals.

Anger is brewing in Nelson over a council decision to set aside areas on the city fringe for freedom campers.

The Marlborough District Council has given out $11,000 so far in hardship grants from the Mayoral Earthquake Fund.

Since last month's quake which blocked the main road through Kaikōura, a once quiet road in Marlborough has been turned into a main South Island highway.

The government has received 60 requests for emergency housing following the Kaikōura quake, with the number expected to climb.

Corrections has been told to pay more than $172,000 in reparations to the family of a man killed while doing community work.

Ross Ward and his wife are living in a borrowed horse truck after last month's quake. They're one of at least nine families in Marlborough forced from their homes.

The ruptured Kēkerengū fault has revealed more secrets about New Zealand's tectonic past, and can help inform what to expect in future, scientists say.

The ever growing number of boaties competing for space along the coast of the Abel Tasman National Park could be restricted to improve safety in the area. Audio

A community work sentence for a fisherman who caused 39 albatross deaths doesn't go far enough, Forest and Bird says.

Eleven buildings in Marlborough - 10 homes and one commercial property - have been red-stickered since last Monday's 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Audio

A couple who left behind busy corporate lives in the UK for quiet Motueka have had to rein in their booming small business.

Southern Marlborough absorbed some of the most damaging energy generated by the earthquake a week ago, a senior GNS scientist told a community gathering.

Earthquake damage in Wellington has renewed calls to move some state services to the regions.

Dorothy Caldwell, who at 98 has been dubbed the world's oldest navigator, is now helping her son navigate New Zealand in the international Haka classic car rally.

Sister city connections have gone beyond fostering friendships to developing economic ties, say advocates, as Nelson re-signs a relationship with the Japanese city of Miyazu.

A Hare Krishna group near Nelson has been issued a final warning to bring some of its buildings up to scratch, or they will have to be removed.

A Labour weekend sting by fisheries officers caught 'multiple' people illegally fishing blue cod in the Marlborough Sounds, including a charter vessel.

Fewer people aged under 40 are learning to drive, new statistics show, and there are now fewer teens on the road than over-75s.