• Huge waves hitting New Zealand’s eastern coastline

    A strong, cold southwesterly flow started affecting New Zealand's South Island on Tuesday, June 13, 2017, lowering temperatures, bringing gale-force winds, huge waves, and snow to some areas. The front is still affecting the country, moving north and bringing a…

  • Bright green fireball streaks across the New Zealand night sky

    A bright green fireball streaked across the night sky over North Island, New Zealand on May 18, 2017. The event took place around 07:15 UTC (19:15 NZST) and lasted up to 7 seconds. According to witness reports, the event lasted a few seconds before it disintegrated…

  • Extremely dangerous Ex-cyclone “Cook” to hit New Zealand

    After hitting New Caledonia with strong winds and heavy rain, Tropical Cyclone "Cook" has undergone extratropical transition but what's left of it is still very potent and is now moving toward New Zealand landfall. Over the past several weeks the…

  • NIWA adds more faults to the latest Kaikoura fault rupture map

    Scientists on board NIWA’s research vessel Ikatere took to the water in January with state-of-the-art equipment to map the sea floor between Cape Campbell and Spyglass Point to the south of Kaikoura and added more fault ruptures to the fault map of…

  • Landslide wrecks Waikato hill, New Zealand

    Extremely heavy rains that struck North Island, New Zealand over the past week have caused a huge landslide in Waikato District. According to media reports, the entire hillside in Waikato moved on Sunday, March 12, 2017, after the region saw between 180 and 220 mm…

  • Massive sinkhole opens up in Auckland, New Zealand

    A very large sinkhole has opened up in Auckland's New Lynn after a week of extremely heavy rainfall dumped by a powerful storm centered over the Tasman Sea. The structure of this storm was similar to a tropical cyclone, NIWA said and shared some of the most…