It was not an ideal way to start the year for a racehorse, but a 3-year-old gelding that split open most of its underside on a metal barrier during the Waikouaiti races on New Year's Day is making a remarkable recovery in Mosgiel.
Conservationists have been warning of it for years, and on Enderby Island in the Auckland Islands group, 460km south of Bluff, there is stark evidence of a serious problem.
The total fire ban covering the Southern rural fire district, excluding the Naseby area, is to be lifted on Monday at 8am after this week's rain eased the danger, but total fire bans around Otago will remain in place.
Complaints about the notification of residents about a boil water notice that will be in place in Mosgiel for at least another two days has prompted officials to consider establishing a database of those who want to be personally notified if the same problem happens again.
Six hundred and sixty kilometres south of Bluff, through the Roaring Forties and in to the Furious Fifties, there is a little island.
The Otago Daily Times spent six days as a guest of the Royal New Zealand Navy in December, with the navy's new offshore patrol vessels HMNZS Otago and Wellington as they ventured into the Southern Ocean for the first time. Today, in the first part of a series, reporter Debbie Porteous writes about life on board the HMNZS Otago and Wellington.
An unusually high number of pedestrians were among those killed in crashes on Otago and Southland's roads last year.
The death of a 28-year-old Palmerston man, whose breathing apparatus stopped during a 90-minute power cut early on Thursday, has been referred to the coroner, Oamaru police confirmed yesterday.
Five Mosgiel teenagers who became inspired after watching an episode of Man vs Wild on television on Sunday, soon found they were no match for the Mt Allan forest.
SPCA animal attendant Donna Hurring, fusses over some of the 15 adult male cats at the Dunedin SPCA needing homes.
More than 250 people are having a ''reely'' good time in Dunedin this summer.
A mystery person led police on a midnight chase through Mosgiel and Outram on Wednesday, before the car they were driving crashed near Clarks Junction and they ran off.
A disciplinary hearing into serious misconduct has been held for two Dunedin police officers convicted of assault earlier this year, but the result will remain confidential for at least several weeks.
There is always a fine balance between getting work done around the house and going fishing. But on a rainy day such as yesterday, the decision was easy for Dunedin salmon angler Alby Sue.
Police have arrested and charged an 18-year-old man in connection with a series of arsons in the town last week.
Several fires, including in a boat, a shed and a dog basket, were lit at two properties on Tokoiti Rd early on Christmas Eve.
Two of five young people involved in a crime spree between Invercargill and Dunedin last week were again picked up by police near Dunedin yesterday after allegedly stealing another vehicle from Invercargill.
As most people in Otago get ready to go on holiday, the region's police staff are preparing to manage the extra workload that the holidays will bring.
Laura Fleming, a 17-year-old St John cadet from Dunedin, has been named the organisation's National Cadet of the Year 2010.
Five senior officers from the Indonesian National Police spent two days in Dunedin this week at the end of a week-long tour of the southern South Island observing New Zealand community policing methods.
A study from the University of Auckland has shown a clear disparity in the use of tasers against mental health patients, but police say they respond to the level of threat of danger, not what is behind the threat, and that will not change.
