Hamish MacLean

Two sites of significance to Maori on the Clutha Gold Trail were blessed this week ''to let the past be comfortable with us coming through''.

Searchers looking for two Owaka friends who failed to return from a fishing trip have today found some 'flotsam' from the pair's boat.

Today could be the last day searchers look for the two Owaka friends who did not return from a fishing trip last week.

Two Oamaru women who wanted to raise awareness of the lives of impoverished people, failed to go the distance, but say they no longer take their Kiwi lifestyle for granted.

When the new rest home in Tapanui opens later this year, it will make West Otago Health one of the biggest employers in the West Otago area.

The families of the two Owaka friends lost at sea were overwhelmed by the turnout at the memorial service held in the small Catlins community yesterday.

A New Zealand Racing Board objection to the Waitaki District Council's proposed gambling venues policy has not dissuaded councillors from sticking with it.

Picking ''guinea pig lollies'', also known as dandelions, are (from left) Pippa McMillan (4), of Weston, Little Wonders Oamaru manager Pip Cleverley and Summer Brosnan (4), of Weston.

Chris Watson says he will be more wary after an attack by two dogs left him with puncture marks on his arm and a ''big cut'' from a bite that went to the bone on his shin.

How good could All Black captain Richie McCaw be if he was nearly 5m tall?

Sophia Leon de la Barra (38) came to Otago in 2008 from Sydney, New South Wales. She has been in Oamaru since January 2013. The Waitaki Community Gardens co-ordinator is a consulting statistician, and manager of Asta la Pasta, an Oamaru home-made pasta venture. Also, she has declared her intention to stand for the Waitaki District Council. North Otago reporter Hamish MacLean met the Aussie who has adopted North Otago as her home.

Authenticity has a lot of currency these days and Wanaka might just be New Zealand's reserve bank, as Hamish MacLean finds out. Whether it is skiing or world-class wines that you are after, it is the people who provide them that will make a visit worthwhile.  

Mental health awareness week hit the streets in South Otago this week.

Picton artist Pita Lagan will return to Oamaru this month to continue carving the steampunk playground's macrocarpas.

Up to eight patients visit the surgeons in the mobile surgical bus every time it stops at Oamaru Hospital.