Hamish McNeilly

The message was clear - innovate or stagnate.

Dunedin shoppers have offered a mixed bag of opinion on supermarket chain Foodstuffs' plan to introduce a 5c surcharge on plastic shopping bags.

Millions of dollars in luxury motorhomes rumbled into Dunedin on Saturday afternoon as part of a 10-day southern safari organised by the Winnebago RV Club.

Dunedin International Airport will have no international flights for several months of the year, following Air New Zealand's announcement the airline will reduce its transtasman services.

It's official - the country's capital has moved to the mainland, with Wellington featuring in a special Lonely Planet guidebook dedicated to the South Island.

A "price war" has erupted at Dunedin International Airport where a shuttle company has slashed its fares by half, after it missed out on an airport licence tender.

Despite having thousands of people on waiting lists, including hundreds in Otago and Southland, Housing New Zealand is selling three-bedroom state houses because its clients want smaller or larger homes.

Otago accommodation providers are preparing for a tough winter, with a double-digit drop in accommodation guest nights in February compared with the previous year, and worse predicted.

Jumbo the elephant was ordered to pack her trunk and leave yesterday, after Dunedin City Council officials deemed the four-tonne African elephant to be squatting illegally on a council reserve.

Insurance company investigators are on high alert following a "blip" in the number of dodgy claims filed by recession-hit policyholders, Insurance Council of New Zealand chief executive Chris Ryan says.

She has toured the world and sung before royalty at Buckingham Palace, but yesterday Mori Pickering performed a waiata in front of several hundred friends and whanau, gathered at Otakou marae to celebrate her 100th birthday.

Nur Al Niaami can't imagine what life would have been like if she had remained in her hometown of Baghdad.

Billed as a "little Kiwi-owned bank taking on the Aussie banks", Kiwibank is using an Australian-based call centre to deal with its thousands of KiwiSaver members.

A $20 million runway extension for Dunedin International Airport is a case of "not if but when", airport chief executive John McCall says.

A Dunedin hotel is encouraging full-time staff to work four-day weeks over the winter period in an effort to save jobs.