Mark Price

In one corner, Wellington management consultant Ian Dickson; in the other corner, Auckland economist Fraser Colegrave.

After 12 years of planning, the heavy machinery has begun rearranging the landscape on the outskirts of Wanaka for the new 100ha Three Parks commercial, recreational and residential development.

The Wanaka man unhappy at the Government's allocation of passes to next year's Gallipoli centennial commemoration has taken his complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman.

The Wanaka Primary School board of trustees is asking the Ministry of Education to replace it with a commissioner.

The more sparsely populated parts of the South are always on the lookout for ways to share the cost of maintaining remote parts of their public infrastructure. The ''user-should-pay'' model is often talked of as a way of lessening the ratepayer burden and, as Mark Price reports, that idea has again bubbled to the surface.

Television viewers love it and young people consider it so cool it is ''sick''. But slopestyle skiing and snowboarding - the new sport at the Sochi Winter Olympics - has at least one highly-placed medical official worried by the injury toll. Mark Price reports.

Contact Energy has ruled out giving more than 100ha of land along the Clutha River to the Department of Conservation.

It was back in the mid-1950s. Two Dunedin men were seated side-by-side in a National Airways Corporation DC3 heading home from Wellington to Dunedin.

Sixty of the country's best sport climbers competed in the second round of the three-round Climbing New Zealand National Cup series in Wanaka at the weekend.

The Cathedral Caves in the Catlins are an example of where tourists pay to maintain infrastructure.

A mad dash to Invercargill is not on the cards for 23-year-old Vincent Blake Chilton when he finally gets his hands on the steering wheel of a Mini next month.

Too long, too wide, too heavy, too badly lit, too poorly secured.

The Department of Conservation begins counting the number of rats and mice in the Mount Aspiring National Park this week, as part of the Battle for our Birds campaign.

The Government is promising to introduce more certainty into the Southland wood energy market.