Experts say writing to people on the outside can help prisoners build purpose – but it goes both ways in what can be a difficult relationship

For the first time since 82-year-old Jan Skilling was a young girl, she has time to spare.

Widowed at 40 and responsible for a nest of kids, grandkids, and now “more great-grandkids than I care to count”, Skilling has spent any spare hour since she can remember looking after everyone but herself. So, in 2017, with retirement from her teaching career looming, she knew it was time for a change.

It is not clear who carried out last week’s attack on Waikato hospital, which downed computers and phone lines

A major New Zealand hospital faces a second week of disruption as it struggles to fix its computer system following a massive cyber attack.

The attack on Waikato district health board (DHB), which began on Tuesday, has been described by its chief executive, Kevin Snee, as “probably the biggest cyber-attack in New Zealand’s history”.

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern said there was no evidence the attack at a Countdown store was an incident of domestic terrorism

Four people have been injured, three critically, after a stabbing attack at a supermarket in the New Zealand city of Dunedin.

Police said a suspect had been arrested and taken into custody after the incident at a Countdown supermarket on Monday afternoon. Two supermarket staff members were among those injured.

Under the government’s current plans it will be half a century before house prices return to affordability

One-third of New Zealanders rent. In my electorate and home, Auckland Central, the centre of the largest city in the country, it’s even more: 54%.

For a really long time, the conversation around housing was one of avocados and flat whites. Renters, we were told, were in a temporary moment of their life. They were, the story went, on a path to homeownership, if only they could reign in their spending on fancy cafe food.