The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) is still trying to contact 50 New Zealanders who may have been in Samoa during Wednesday morning's massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
By Mark Geenty of NZPA Sydney, Oct 4 NZPA - A grieving Matt Utai looked his Bankstown City league coach Terry Lamb in the eye and said "I'm going to play".
A village in Samoa has a very strong New Zealand connection -- Prime Minister John Key is its high chief.
Taitasi Suapaia Fitiao is preparing for every parent's nightmare - burying her young child.
More New Zealand aid and specialist help has arrived in tsunami-ravaged Samoa today.
Two New Zealand children are confirmed to have died in Wednesday's Samoan tsunamis and a third is missing, presumed dead.
The air force is tonight flying 14 injured New Zealanders home from Samoa as the death toll mounts in Pacific islands devastated by Wednesday's earthquake and tsunami.
Details are emerging of New Zealanders who are missing, presumed dead, after a magnitude 8.3 earthquake and devastating tsunami struck Samoa on Wednesday morning.
Ana Lulai and Rachel Loane were cousins and best friends. They had just finished breakfast on Wednesday and were preparing for school. Then the waves hit.
"Lest we forget" is scrawled in red on a yellow ute abandoned on the roadside. Then the words: "Life goes on and on". That, it seems, is true in tsunami-stricken Samoa.
Three New Zealanders have now been confirmed dead and another is missing, presumed dead.
More than 200 New Zealanders in tsunami-ravaged Samoa who have still not yet been accounted for are being urged to come forward.
As the scale of the devastation in Samoa hits home, Otago tourists and their relatives tell their survival stories.
New Zealand tourists have told of their terror when the tsunami smashed through their Samoan beach resort.
Officials in Samoa are still trying to track down 231 New Zealanders.
Samoans living in Dunedin, many having lost family in the tsunami, are mobilising to provide support for the devastated island.
Douglas Clark (66) is a man on a mission. The Dunedin man, a disaster assessment specialist with the New Zealand Red Cross, arrived in Apia, Samoa, early yesterday to assist the Samoan Red Cross.
It was not the kind of holiday they had in mind. Speaking from the Samoan capital of Apia yesterday, St Clair School teacher Shelley Wilde (50) said she and husband Noel (57) were woken by a large earthquake on Tuesday morning (local time).
Members of Parliament are working alongside members of the public as a massive international relief effort gets under way in the islands of Samoa and Tonga.
Two major earthquakes in the Pacific region within 24 hours are a coincidence and nothing to be concerned about, a Wellington seismologist says.
