Allison Rudd

Deer velvet - still fuzzy and fresh from being cut - is spread on the table for judging at the New Zealand Velvet and Trophy Antler Competition at Invercargill's Ascot Park Hotel.

Economic development organisation Venture Southland hopes to know soon whether it has been able to attract external funding for an ambitious project to develop a high-value oat production and food processing industry in the province.

It could cost New Zealand Aluminium Smelters $19 million to compensate eligible shift workers underpaid lieu day payments, the Employment Court heard yesterday.

With great dexterity Australian Alan Kempster extracts a cigarette and lighter from a packet and lights up using his left hand, the only one he has had since he was struck by a truck while riding a motorcycle 23 years ago and had his right arm and leg ripped off.

Lloyd Esler describes himself as a ''cold hard sceptic'', but even he is starting to believe otters might have made themselves at home in Southland.

The announcement of a $17.9 million upgrade for Invercargill Prison has been well received by staff, acting manager Glenda Mitchell says.

The organisers of Bluff's oyster and food festival are bidding for the historic Club Hotel on the town's main street.

It's taken 35 years of determined lobbying and a law change, but Stewart Island/Rakiura finally has a visitor levy.

An appeal over lieu hours entitlements which, if New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS) wins, could save the company from paying out an estimated $7 million to staff, will be heard in Invercargill soon.

Motorcyclists in Invercargill for the Burt Munro Challenge were able to train with one of the best yesterday.

One of the main organisers of a pre-graduation function for Invercargill teaching students yesterday was surprised to find herself the centre of attention.

For Dunedin resident Alan Cotter, an article in yesterday's Otago Daily Times may have answered a decades-old puzzle about what he saw swimming in the Oreti River in the early 1960s.

Invercargill City Council (ICC) staff are vacating the Bluff Service Centre because the building has been assessed as a serious earthquake risk and it is uncertain whether it will ever reopen.

Longtime Te Anau residents Murray and Margaret Knowles are dead against plans for a tunnel to shorten the distance between Queenstown and Milford Sound, and feel the same way about the monorail proposed to provide speedier access to the tourist spot.

The Otago-heavy Radio Sport team at Invercargill's Queens Park yesterday before the Tour of Southland prologue stage.

Spring brings magnificent swathes of colour to Southland as hundreds of hectares of tulips bloom. But for tulip producers, the flowers are a byproduct and the real value of the plant lies in its bulb. Reporter Allison Rudd talks to one of the van Eeden family about the changing industry.