Around 150 friends and family of an award-winning director wrote messages in the sand and stepped into the water in an emotional service and tribute at the New Zealand beach where he was killed by a huge shark.

A shark said to have been up to 14ft long killed a swimmer near a popular New Zealand beach today, then disappeared after police attempting to save the man fired at the predator.

Small amounts of oil from a container ship stuck on a reef has started washing up at a popular New Zealand beach today, while work to extract oil from the vessel was called off because of weather concerns.

Rescuers today began moving the 24 survivors of a pod of 80 pilot whales that stranded themselves on a remote northern New Zealand beach to a more sheltered area in an attempt to save them.