David Loughrey

Wayne Biggs says he feels as if he is in the eye of a storm.

It weighs a tonne, makes a tremendous noise and shoots flames from its exhaust - yet does not move a millimetre.

The thick, misty drizzle that soaked Dunedin all day on Friday proved too much for many of the city's pay-and-display parking meters.

The shipping lanes were busy in Dunedin at the weekend, with navy ships, merchant vessels, fishing boats and sailing craft vying for space, when the Alligator Tours airboat got into trouble in heavy weather and flipped.

The reality of Otago's continuing dry weather is beginning to bite hard and an end to irrigation for some farmers is taking a financial toll.

The Dunedin City Council's building consent processing times have again broken through a 20-day limit, after what staff say is a spike in applications, and staff issues.

A 72-year-old Waimate man is in Oamaru Hospital with severe abrasions and bruising after crashing his microlight plane at Hilderthorpe, near Oamaru, this afternoon.

An armed offenders squad call-out last night closed Brighton Rd at Ocean View, after police responded to ''threats made'' by a 53-year-old man.

Soft soil, a large hole and an inactive fault line beneath State Highway 1 through the Caversham Valley are behind a $3.5 million budget increase for work there.

A Dunedin woman has reacted to what she has described as an ''unbelievable'' and ''extraordinary'' $65 parking fine she received at a car park at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

A $250,000 budget to make sure Dunedin makes the most of its Gigatown win will be included in the city's pre-draft long-term plan for public consultation.

The Dunedin City Council looks set to begin the nuts and bolts work of planning its new South Dunedin library and community complex, but with a warning from one councillor final approval may not get unanimous support.

The shadowy and little-known existential infrastructure services unit at the Dunedin City Council was set up to deal with issues of existence, philosophy and the absurd. The unit was housed in crawl space behind the stone facades of the Municipal Chambers and its reception area was an intolerably low and stuffy room in the ceiling of the Skeggs Gallery.

Shammika Rodrigo went a long way to make sure Sri Lankan fans had a strong presence at the cricket yesterday.

The picturesque University Oval in Dunedin is about to launch into a cricket lover's dream long weekend, and even more matches are to come.

Dunedin city councillors will be asked this week to provide $250,000, including funding for two full-time equivalent jobs, to make sure the city makes the most of its Gigatown win.

Three generations of a Taieri family are continuing the tradition begun by a fourth, as they prepare to exhibit their cattle at the Otago Taieri A&P Society's 155th annual show this weekend.

One of Dunedin's most popular subjects of conversation, the weather, can now reach new and more complex levels of detail, with a MetService initiative giving live data on the micro-climates of city suburbs.

Dunedin businessman Doug Hall has been refused court costs in his long-running dispute with the Dunedin City Council over the realignment of State Highway 88.