Being hurled around the sky in a Pitts Special aerobatic plane would be the last thing many people would choose to do. However, ODT Wanaka reporter Catherine Pattison jumped at the chance to be frightened by Wanaka aerobatic pilot Ivan Krippner.
Wanaka multisporter and adventure racer Dougal Allan still blushes about when he first clapped eyes on his girlfriend Amy Nunn on the lakeshore.
For New Zealand's top rally driver, Hayden Paddon, 2012 involves changing cars from Subaru to Skoda and swapping his residential address in South Canterbury for Spain.
When you are only 9 years old and already have five years' motorbike racing under your belt, the results may well tell a story.
Hayden Paddon's rallying future may well hinge on a contact made at this year's Otago Rally.
Campbell King (17) was having "one of those off days" on Sunday at the fourth round of the Southern Moto-X Series at Lee Stream - but still managed three second places.
The Southern Moto-X Series comes as close to Dunedin as the five-round championship gets this Sunday when it is hosted at Lee Stream by the Mosgiel District Motorcycle Club.
After battling his way up boulders and balancing his way over tree roots, through creek beds and along steep hillsides, Blake Fox, of Brighton, placed fifth in the expert grade at the three-day New Zealand Moto Trials Championships near Te Awamutu in Waikato.
While patience, balance and taking extreme care on a motorbike might not be attributes typically associated with teenage boys, Brighton's Blake Fox (17) possesses each of these characteristics in abundance.
Otago drivers are in with a chance for overall and class wins as the South Island Endurance Series heads to Levels Raceway in Timaru for its third and final round today.
The Southern Moto-X Series is still going full throttle as it enters its 33rd year, lending the five-round championship - attracting peewees to senior pros - a rare longevity in this country.
Dunedin brothers Arron and Stuart Black experienced reversals in racing fortunes at the second round of the South Island endurance series at Ruapuna Raceway.
Defending South Island Endurance Series drivers Allan Dippie (Dunedin) and Grant Aitken (Queenstown) were doing well for 2hr 55min of the first three-hour round at Teretonga Park last Saturday.
Mosgiel's Chris Hey has a good reason to keep returning to the Ashley Forest rally sprint in North Canterbury - he has now won the 2WD section four years running.
Five Otago drivers will be pitting themselves against star-studded competition, including Production World Rally Champion Hayden Paddon, in this weekend's North Canterbury-based Ashley Forest Rally Sprint.
After narrowly dodging disaster twice over the three-day Rally Australia, New Zealand's Hayden Paddon became the first southern hemisphere driver to win a world rally title yesterday.
Hayden Paddon insists it is "business as usual" heading into Rally Australia, despite the possibility he could be sliding into the world rally history books on Sunday evening.
When Richard and Sara Mason won their third New Zealand Rally Championship title together yesterday after the final round in Hawkes Bay, there were three factors keeping their success feeling fresh.
Stage three was where the Catlins Coast Rally came unstitched for two leaders on Saturday and where a previous winner surged ahead for his second win.
The Catlins Coast Rally will see a former co-driver/driver pairing fighting it out in similar machinery for the first time in five years.
