New Zealand police expect to start removing bodies from the hostel in Wellington where at least six people died in a fire earlier this week, authorities said on Thursday.

A resident of a Wellington hostel where a fatal fire occurred in the early hours of Tuesday morning said the fire alarms often went off, but not when they were most needed.

A child has gone missing in a caving system as torrential rain and flooding hit the North Island of New Zealand, with search and rescue teams suspending their search as night fell.

A state of emergency has been declared for Auckland as torrential rain wreaks havoc in the region, causing flooding in some areas.

New Zealand’s economy shrank in the last quarter as the central bank’s aggressive interest rate hikes led businesses to invest less and consumers to reduce spending. Official data on Thursday.

The number of people still “uncontactable” in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle that lashed New Zealand two weeks ago has dropped to 23, New Zealand police said on Friday.

Residents across the north of New Zealand are bracing for a rough night as Cyclone Gabrielle lashes the country with torrential rains and winds.

Authorities in New Zealand announced Wednesday that they had intercepted a 3.5-ton shipment of cocaine afloat in a remote swath of the Pacific Ocean.

Six new ministers have been sworn in at Government House this morning.

The weekly number of new community cases of COVID-19 has fallen again, to 10,589, the Ministry of Health has reported.

Damaged or not, all Auckland schools will have a delayed start to the first term of the year.

Aucklanders are waking to the sound of yet more rain over the already sodden city as the state of emergency there enters its fourth day.