Lois Williams

Ngāwhā marae near Kaikohe has welcomed a giant to its grounds today - a huge swamp kauri log.

A controversial plan to revamp the historic Russell wharf with a cafe and toilets is set to gain final sign-off within a fortnight.

The government is to invest nearly $8 million in two major Far North projects, including a long-held dream of waka tohunga, Sir Hekenukumai Busby.

A popular Whangārei Māori teacher may have to leave New Zealand with her two children because Immigration NZ will not let her Canadian husband into the country.

Scientists who have been studying fairy terns at Mangawhai on Northland's east coast now suspect the bird's decline may be linked to the removal of mangroves from the harbour.

The Māori Climate Change Commissioner, Donna Awatere-Huata, says it's time for New Zealand children to strike, and shame adults into action on climate change.

A trust set up by the American golfing billionaire Ric Kayne is funding genetic research on the country's rarest bird, the fairy tern.

Council officers have seized a dog they believe attacked a 95-year-old man in Kaikohe this week, and it's not the first time he's bitten.

Northland transport committee chair John Bain says he will not stop campaigning for an expressway to Auckland, nor will he step down to please Shane Jones.

Conservationists in the Far North are concerned about the disappearance of freshwater streams from Ninety Mile Beach.

Firefighters in Northland are working flat out to control the latest in a series of scrub fires which they say could have spread to a pine plantation.

A leading windscreen repair firm says its workload has more than doubled in Whangārei and the North Shore since roadworks began in the north this season.

The poison drop in Northland's Russell State Forest all but wiped out rats and dropped possum numbers by 80 per cent, according to DOC.

More than 5000 Northland children and teenagers have been vaccinated against the new W strain of meningococcal disease.

An Auckland company hoping to mine peat soils from wetlands north of Kaitaia has surrendered its resource consents.

Residents of Opito Bay near Kerikeri are devastated after the discovery that someone has killed their beachfront pōhutukawa.

More than $8 million in funding will help scientists get a better handle on kauri dieback disease and stop its spread.

A Far North iwi says it is in the firing line for trying to develop its land, while all around it developers are digging up similar land for orchards and no-one's bothered.

Whangārei people sleeping under bridges or in their cars now have somewhere to go for a wash, a cuppa, companionship and help during the day.

A small Far North conservation group has won a court battle that could shut down the majority of swamp kauri exports.

Ngāpuhi people are about to vote on a new plan for Treaty negotiations but a significant number of hapū have already declared they want no part of it.

The typical Northland household is now paying about $55 a week for electricity, about $9 a week above the national average.

The new mandate model for the Ngāpuhi settlement is a blueprint for war, according to Ngāti Hine chair Waihoroi Shortland.

Northland has been let down by the decision not to build a four-lane highway south of Whangārei, the electorate's National MP Shane Reti says.

The long-held dream of a Māori cultural centre for Whangarei is hanging on hopes of a $5 million council grant.