Quarantine-free travel from Niue to New Zealand will begin on March 24.

Auckland will move to alert level 1 from midday today, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has confirmed.

Seismologists have recorded more than 140 earthquakes of magnitude 4 or higher since a 7.2 earthquake caused householders to flee low-lying East Coast areas on Friday morning.

A special “prison within a prison” is guarding the Christchurch mosque shooter and two other notoriously violent criminals at a huge cost to the taxpayer.

A 5.4 magnitude quake struck 125km east of Te Araroa off East Cape at a depth of 12km just after 10.30am.

New Zealanders have been told to move away from coastal areas of the North Island after three powerful earthquakes shook the region.

Swarm of earthquakes in Pacific – including magnitude 8.1 quake in Kermadec Islands at 8.28am (NZT) – spark Civil Defence warnings.

Auckland, New Zealand is in its second lockdown in a month as health authorities try to rein in a coronavirus cluster of the more contagious UK variant.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced Auckland will once again move to Alert Level 3 restrictions, this time for seven days, after another new community COVID-19 case this evening.

A new COVID-19 case has been confirmed in Auckland New Zealand but officials aren’t looking at moving up alert levels.

It is believed a New Zealand woman and her two children who were detained at the Turkish border while trying to enter from Syria will be deported.

There is one new case of COVID-19 in the community linked to the Valentine’s Day outbreak.