David Bruce

Three weeks touring NewZealand in an open-top car seems a dream, providing the weather co-operates.

"It's like riding in an armchair," is how Leigh Craythorne described the basket sidecar as her husband Tony kicked their 1914 Triumph Model C into action for a slalom race at Oamaru's Takaro Park yesterday.

When it comes to steak, Jared Fox has had plenty of practice cooking for his girlfriend, Caitlin Williams.

Little known outside the immediate area, the coastal Wainono Lagoon near Waimate has an exciting future, David Bruce reports."We're pretty excited, to put it mildly," is how Robin Murphy describes the future of the Wainono Lagoon and wetlands.

Omarama's Memorial Hall may be redeveloped by the end of this year in a project costing up to $500,000.

Permission to operate the Kakanui Camping Ground is continuing while a resource consent process is being worked through between owner Allan Jones and the Waitaki District Council, in a bid to determine its long-term future.

The 100th birthday of an NSU motorcycle will be celebrated back on the road, thanks to "a mad rush over the last two weeks" by two Kurow men, Trevor Appleby and Tony Green.

Thousands of tourists visit Oamaru each year to see its historic buildings.

The road into Birchwood Station homestead, owned by the Department of Conservation as part of its Ahuriri Conservation Park, will not be maintained by the Waitaki District Council to the level it was.

A decision on whether a new $400 million cement plant will be built near Weston is now not expected until the second half of this year.

"It's not a freezing works any more, it's a food processing plant," Alliance Group Pukeuri plant manager Geoff Proctor said, describing North Otago's biggest industry.

The State Highway 1 bridge is the latest across the Waitaki River to be affected by floods over the past four days.

Hakataramea and Kurow residents, worried about the closure of the twin bridges on State Highway 82, have called a public meeting tomorrow to discuss the issue with the New Zealand Transport Agency.