Hamish MacLean

A replacement gathering place for the Kaitangata community will cost $500,000, supporters say.

The Cross Recreation Centre needs nearly double its current annual contribution from the Clutha District Council, or the management committee might have to ''wind it down''.

The greatest challenge facing rural firefighters in Clutha is fleet safety as no fully operational water tankers are in service between Dunedin and Clutha Valley.

Scorch marks remain on the walls of Carol Geissler's Papatowai home after a lightning strike ''blew'' her landline while she was talking on the phone during an intense thunderstorm last month.

A group of 40 people celebrated 125 years of the Blind Foundation in New Zealand at the South Otago Town and Country Club, in Balclutha, on Saturday.

A stake that police believe John Beckenridge used to mark the best spot to drive over a cliff on a grey and windswept Catlins coast may be the last sign of the man and his 11-year-old stepson. Hamish MacLean takes a look at the mystery so far.

Police say it is too early to tell what the car linked to missing Invercargill boy Mike Zhao-Beckenridge can tell them.

Killing the ducks and filling the pond at Naish Park in Balclutha have been considered following concerns about the water quality in the pond and the amount of duck excrement around it.

The closure of the Beaumont Bridge for two days next week, requiring an 80km detour for heavy vehicles, is the first of several closures, though not all will require detours, the New Zealand Land Transport Agency says.

Since the fire that burned through the Gordon family's Circle Hill home on Wednesday night, the Milburn family of five has felt lucky to be alive.

One hundred years after the Catlins River branch line was completed in 1915, a portion of it will be opened again, not for timber, farm supplies, or passengers, but as a walking trail.

An intense thunderstorm that shook houses in Kaka Point on Wednesday night may also have snuffed out the lighthouse at nearby Nugget Point.

The community is rallying around a Milburn family that lost ''everything'' in a house fire on Wednesday.

Work to seal the Cross Recreation Centre car park in Balclutha is set to begin after Easter.

Blame it on the rain: the first day scheduled for filming Walt Disney Pictures' Pete's Dragon on the streets of Tapanui, West Otago, did not happen as planned.