Oamaru will become the first place in New Zealand to allow the use of Skype in court proceedings when audio visual technology is trialled in Family Court hearings, Minister for Courts Chester Borrows announced yesterday.
The Waitaki Valley Wine Growers Association has given a cautious welcome to a Government initiative to expand New Zealand wine exports overseas.
District councils in North Otago and South Canterbury appear set to take a greater role in defining the future of the Mackenzie Basin, under a collaborative agreement due to be published by the Mackenzie Sustainable Futures Trust next month.
A week on from the closure of Kurow's only bank, the National Bank, business groups from the area yesterday confirmed they had been unable to entice other banks to fill the void.
A decision about when a project to replace the 132-year-old twin bridges between Kurow and Hakataramea will get funding will not be made until September, according to the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA).
"Arrogant" motorists in Oamaru have been lambasted by the Oamaru Steam and Rail Society, after a car abandoned by a driver when it got stuck was hit by a freight train.
Friends of a Dunedin tramper who died in the Ahuriri Conservation Park in North Otago have raised more than $1000 to help North Otago search and rescue volunteers buy a new mobile forward command and control unit.
Police say the Mid-South Canterbury district, which includes Waimate and Twizel, will be largely unaffected by a restructuring of police operations.
Sections of Oamaru were left without electricity on Thursday afternoon after a power cut caused minor disruption to residents and businesses in the north of the town.
About nine months after being placed on the market, the 231ha Campbell Park Estate in the Waitaki Valley is still unsold, despite the property attracting interest from both Australia and the United States.
The bombing of Hiroshima during World War 2 will be remembered in Oamaru on Monday, as part of World Peace Day commemorations.
The new organisers of the Oamaru Christmas Parade have confirmed a date for the parade, and promised to make this year's event "bigger than ever".
Volunteers from two North Otago fire brigades took seven and a-half hours to put out a blaze that almost totally destroyed a 100-year-old house in Duntroon on Tuesday.
A farming leader in North Otago yesterday called for more farmers to ensure that both fire extinguishers and smoke alarms were installed at farmhouses to prevent potentially "catastrophic fires".
Some rural residents in North Otago were still having to cope with closed roads and dirty drinking water yesterday because of this week's heavy rain.
The introduction of an annual country fair that organisers hope will put a small North Otago township "on the map" is still three months away from becoming a reality, but stallholders have already come to the party in droves.
After a five-year absence, steam trains could become a regular sight in Oamaru within a year, according to the Oamaru Steam and Rail Society.
The Duntroon to Oamaru section of the much-lauded Alps 2 Ocean cycle trail will take cyclists off-road as much as possible, according to the Waitaki District Council.
Two people face a variety of charges after they were arrested in Oamaru on Tuesday night.
A decade-long wrangle over the Kakanui camping ground flared up again this week, after neighbours appealed a decision made by a Waitaki District Council resource consent hearing last month.
