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Christmas and New Year in Oamaru for many people was as much ''out with the old and in with the new'' as it was ''one man's junk is another man's treasure'', if usage of the Waitaki Resource Recovery Park in Oamaru is any indication.

Research carried out by Hampden art lovers has brought together more than 150 years of the area's history that might otherwise never have been seen by local residents.

Life does not come much more laid-back than in the tiny North Otago village of Ngapara. In fact, it is so small it does not feature as a separate entity in either the recent national census or the local council count of rateable properties. Despite that, Andrew Ashton discovered its rural appeal.

Anglers making their regular pilgrimage to the Waitaki River mouth for a New Year fish, say shark not trout was on the dinner table on New Year's Eve.

Holidaymakers in North Otago for Christmas and New Year are having a blast, despite a wet start to the holiday.

While most people take the chance to get away from it all by taking a camping trip over the new year, a Hakataramea engineer will have the sole responsibility for keeping three of New Zealand's largest hydro-electric power stations ticking over.

Oamaru Combined Churches Christmas Parcels project co-ordinator Adrienne Wylie and volunteer Sue Cole, show some Christmas cheer as they prepare to deliver hampers and presents to needy families in Oamaru.

Waitaki's newest councillor this week said water management would probably be the issue that would dominate the concerns of her Ahuriri Ward constituents.

A new $100 million investment at the Port of Timaru announced yesterday may yet mean a new cement factory being built in North Otago.

The relaxation of China's one-child policy is expected to result in a massive baby-boom in the Asian country and the Waimate district could be better placed than anywhere else in the South Island to cash in on the boom, the Chinese Consul-General Xiutian Tan says.

A 94-year-old World War 2 veteran who was held down by burglars in Oamaru while they stole 1940s keepsakes from his home on Tuesday was yesterday said to be ''tearful''.

Police in Oamaru are investigating complaints that a local contractor may have been stealing from people's homes for more than a year.

A North Otago woman had a narrow escape at the weekend when her telephone burst into flames shortly after she had had the good sense to hang up just before lightning struck her rural home.