Chris Morris

Queenstown's position as the engine room driving growth in Otago has been underscored by a new report profiling the province's economic performance.

The "cave rave" planned for Long Beach will instead be held at Dunedin nightspot Sammy's after a safety inspection at the beach found revellers could be at risk from loose boulders perched high up a cliff face.

The Dunedin City Council is defending the quality of its consultant's advice, after falling rocks at Long Beach helped convince organisers of a planned "cave rave" to switch to a safer venue at the last minute.

A more cautious approach to visitors may be needed at Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium, contractors are warning, following two accidents and 11 "near misses" at the construction site.

Plans for the future of Carisbrook - now owned by the Dunedin City Council - were debated behind closed doors by councillors yesterday, after a last-minute bid to hold the debate in public was defeated.

A "cave rave" expected to attract up to 1000 revellers to Long Beach will go ahead, despite the objections of some residents.

The French navy patrol vessel La Moqueuse berthed at Dunedin's Birch St wharf yesterday.

Dunedin City Council staff are still waiting for test results that could confirm a vascular disease not seen before in New Zealand is attacking Dunedin's plane trees.

An interim decision supporting modifications to a plan for the $5.4 million upgrade of Riccarton Rd West, in East Taieri, has been labelled a "fiasco" by a critic of the proposal.

Disagreements over New Zealand's anti-nuclear position are detailed in just-released dispatches sent by Britain's High Commissioners to New Zealand over the past 20 years.

Two Dunedin city councillors say their colleagues may have broken local government rules when approving a $2.48 million budget for the company tasked with running Forsyth Barr Stadium.

The introduction of swipe cards and turnstiles at Moana Pool should result in a significant drop in the "huge" number of fee-dodgers sneaking into the facility, Dunedin City Council aquatic services manager Steve Prescott says.

She is cracked and weathered in places and, at 80 years of age, is definitely showing signs of age.

The first pieces of two giant steel columns, together weighing more than 100 tonnes, are on their way south to Dunedin's new Forsyth Barr Stadium.

The i-Site Dunedin Visitor Centre's occupation of the Dunedin Community Gallery could be extended.