Mark Price

Makarora businesses believe they have been left in the lurch by the Department of Conservation's decision not to open its visitor centre in the village for the summer, as usual.

Progress on the new upmarket Marina Tce apartment complex along Lakeside Rd is likely to be just the beginning of a makeover for the Lake Wanaka foreshore that will even include better facilities for southern crested grebes.

The harsh cold snap that caused commuters to slip and water pipes across Otago to burst is passing, the MetService says.

One of the key facilities for the Winter Games next month was completed at the Cardrona Alpine Resort on Saturday.

Kuri dogs were man's best friend in New Zealand for 600 years. Now Dunedin biologist Dr Priscilla Wehi is trying to determine why they became extinct 150 years ago, Mark Price reports.

The new owners of an $85 million apartment development overlooking Lake Wanaka expect to begin building in about a year.

How much Wanaka ratepayers will need to contribute to the cost of the new Wanaka swimming pool is still up in the air.

Wanaka will soon get its first economic development manager with a mandate to explore business opportunities beyond tourism.

Omarama Volunteer Fire Brigade Chief Fire Officer Terry Walsh was not aware on Sunday of moves that might lead to the Lindis Pass' 57km cellphone ''black spot'' being filled in.

The Cardrona community ''bent over backwards'' to make the Race to the Sky hillclimb a success, according to Cardrona businessman Sean Colbourne.

Rarely is a good word said about ferrets in New Zealand. After all, they eat our native birds. But, as Mark Price reports, Hyde rabbiter Stephen Dickson has been working with them for three years now, and has built up a certain ... admiration.

The great thing about being an ODT reporter is having an excuse to ring people for a bit of a yarn. Half the time the results are just kind of interesting but not really ''news''. Today the Wanaka team shares the best and worst of the week's ''just kind of interesting'' stuff from around the Upper Clutha - including a painting, whitebait and babies.

The proof could be in the fritter in September.

What do they want? That is the question exercising the minds of those keen to cater for, and capitalise on, the explosion in Chinese tourist numbers. Otago Daily Times Wanaka bureau chief Mark Price this week examines their taste for adventure tourism.

The sign on the site of the Infinity Investment Group's multimillion-dollar Marina Terrace apartment complex in Lakeside Rd might be gone but the project is still very much alive.