Mark Price

Plans for a new Southern Lakes skifield have taken another step forward.

A few ''funky foot things'' and a bit of a cold was as bad as it got for Queenstown's Team Seagate, which crossed the Godzone Adventure Race finish line in Wanaka yesterday afternoon.

The question of whether Wanaka needs another 1500 sections ''goes to the heart'' of an Environment Court appeal being heard in Wanaka this week.

Fine weather in the South Atlantic Ocean is playing into the hands of ''Team Rat'' chief helicopter pilot Peter Garden, of Wanaka.

The hat trick, the treble, the triple crown, or perhaps the ''tri tri'' - whatever you prefer to call it - Christchurch's Dylan McNeice now has it, after winning yesterday's Challenge Wanaka triathlon in commanding style.

The wedding of Wanaka Challenge competitors Alyssa Coe and Mark Smoothy went off without a hitch on the shores of Lake Wanaka this evening.

After 11 hours' swimming, cycling and running on Sunday, two Challenge Wanaka athletes will stop and get married.

Boaties are being reminded to leave their dogs at home if they intend visiting Lake Wanaka's islands.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (Nasa) Wanaka-based balloon team is under the pump.

The country's biggest ''second tier'' campervan company, Jucy Rentals, says it would welcome discussions with the Queenstown Lakes District Council over tourists failing to pay their fines for illegal camping.

Hundreds of overseas tourists caught freedom camping illegally in the Queenstown Lakes area are leaving the country without paying the $200 fine.

Motorists using the dusty back roads of the Upper Clutha at Easter beware.