Allison Rudd

The 2-year-old girl who drowned on a Central Southland farm on Tuesday evening is the third Southland child to die in a water-related incident on a rural property in the past seven months.

Invercargill-based electricity network asset company PowerNet is overseeing a $24.5 million project to install electricity smart meters in homes throughout Southland and West Otago.

Christchurch speedster Phil Garrett is on the hunt for one more adventurous rider to join his Flying Kiwi team at the Bonneville salt flats, in Utah, in August.

An Invercargill man rushed to help after a ''huge fireball'' engulfed a man outside the shop where he worked yesterday afternoon.

The owner of a block of shops in Salford St, North Invercargill, damaged in an apparent arson attack early yesterday morning, is grateful firefighters arrived quickly when the alarm was raised about 4am.

Thirty years ago, the Waihopai River broke its banks near Invercargill, causing widespread damage and forcing the evacuation of about 4000 people from 1000 homes. Allison Rudd looks back.

Another species of dung beetle has been released in Southland to try to provide a natural solution to reducing the province's output of animal excrement.

The ship stuck in thick ice in the Antarctic for almost two weeks has arrived back in Bluff with 22 Russian crew members aboard, but the passengers who were helicoptered off it are still far from home.

The skipper of a Bluff fishing boat that hit an uncharted rock in Foveaux Strait in 2012 did not know how many passengers he had on board, the official report into the incident says.

Some of the hundreds of people who visited Invercargill's oldest surviving wooden house during an open day on Saturday had special tour guides - the great-grandson and great-great-grandson of the home's original owner.

Owen Saunders has urgent work to do. One of the massive gears on his pride and joy - a 6hp, three-speed, 1911 Burrell steam traction engine - has split and he wants the engine running again in time for two public outings soon.

Fifteen-year-old Pedro Piquet knows the eyes of the motor-racing world are on him.

Ohai has no shops, no school, no post office and no pub. So why do residents continue to live in a town which, if not dying, is on life support? And how has Ohai managed to attract newcomers?

Three southern organisations are joining forces to establish a new population of little spotted kiwi in Dusky Sound, Fiordland.

While most New Zealand drivers transport children only in approved car seats, an Otago-Southland Plunket manager says more than half of those seats are not being used correctly, putting children at risk.