Hamish MacLean

The widow of the first principal of Telford Farm Training Institute says her husband would have enjoyed celebrating its 50th anniversary.

The first time the location scout for Pete's Dragon saw the decommissioned sawmill in Tapanui, he knew it would be perfect for the reimagined version of the 1977 classic.

Southern farmers remain without any real answers as to why hundreds of dairy cows fell sick, or died, last winter, as the third and final phase of testing begins.

Tuapeka Gold Print, the business that began in Lawrence entrepreneur Jim Robertson's kitchen over 25 years ago, is experiencing ''phenomenal'' growth almost one year after leaving the Clutha town for Dunedin.

Window displays in the old office and administration building of Tuapeka Gold Print suggest new life on Lawrence's main street: brightly blooming orange flowers stand almost a metre tall.

The loss of Lawrence's largest business a year ago has had a visible impact on town. Hamish MacLean takes a look at how the town of about 400 people has coped since almost 70 Tuapeka Gold Print employees followed the work north.

Yarnit Milton will celebrate both old and new at its first fabric festival in Milton on Saturday.

The oldest participant at the Johnstone Electrical Bridge to Beach finds walking gets him talking.

Balclutha's new top policeman Sergeant Martin Bull has a simple policing philosophy: ''firm but fair''.

A bedcloth with hand-stitched messages of support for Anzac troops in World War 1, made in Stirling, South Otago, was discovered in a small English town and will be a part of World War 1 centenary commemorations in England.

''Riding Miss Ferguson'' is a one-man mission to raise money for the elderly of Mercury Bay.

Water restrictions remain in place for 300 Clutha properties from Lovells Flat to Waihola, but the Clutha District Council says it is making progress on fixing the scheme.

A woman who had been kicked by a horse was airlifted to Dunedin Hospital by helicopter during the first day on the Tussock Creek light wagon trail on the Otago Goldfields Heritage Trust's cavalcade yesterday.

Thick, toxic smoke filled Abercrombie St in Milton as a house burned yesterday morning.

The Clutha District Council was last night scrambling to find a suspected major leak in one of the district's rural water schemes.