Hamish McNeilly

As an accountant, Duncan Rae knows the numbers.

Motorists can defrost inside as well as out, thanks to a new campaign by police.

A local body mayor took the plunge and soaked his local body but not the mayoral chains at the annual Polar Plunge yesterday.

The lure of a cheap iPad has left a Dunedin student with nothing but a $2 clock.

Motorists are being reminded to drive to the conditions after a car skidded on ice and rolled in a Dunedin street yesterday morning.

The first car to be crushed under the boy-racer legislation is expected to meet its end today, while the fate of a South Otago car - the first ordered to be crushed under that legislation - remains unclear.

Jason Frandi described himself as "just lovely" to a Southland solo mother he was involved in a texting relationship with in the months before he brutally murdered a Czech backpacker.

Police spent more than $500,000 on the David Bain retrial, while the judge assessing Mr Bain's compensation claim is charging $450 an hour.

Ambitious plans for the 116-year-old Dunedin Prison have been locked down, with confirmation the historic property has been sold to a trust intent on transforming it into a tourist attraction.

Slain Czech tourist Dagmar Pytlickova was described by a Central Otago vineyard owner as "very bubbly and always smiling".

A popular traffic route near the historic Dunedin Railway Station may be closed to vehicles following the death of a cyclist last year and numerous near misses.

Sometimes you can catch a break, Hamish McNeilly reports.

Two former Dunedin detectives have been asked to appear before a retired judge as David Bain's compensation bid continues.

A confidential report on a Dunedin-based charitable trust with links to the Mongrel Mob reveals the trust received several Government grants, including one for healthy eating.

An increase in convictions for the dealing and possession of methamphetamine in the Southern district is the result of successful operations as opposed to increased use of the drug, police say.

The health of truck drivers was the focus of a new operation for the South Island yesterday.

An attempt to unearth a time capsule buried on a Dunedin school ground more than two decades ago, remains grounded.

A pokies executive has slammed a claim that Otago would be $11 million better off if a controversial Bill handing the distribution of gaming cash to local government was introduced.