James Beech

Destination Queenstown will aim for higher-yielding longer-staying visitors as part of its bid to boost visitor spending to $1 billion by 2016.

Today 5.30pm: An artistic network between two cities confronted by disaster form ''Shared Lines'', the new exhibition in Toi o Tahuna Gallery above Rees St.

Police credit a greater emphasis on preventing crimefor the fourth consecutive decrease in crime in the Southern district.

A rodent chewed electrical wires and triggered a blaze at the rear of a 153-year-old cottage near Arrow Junction on Easter Monday.

Cultural diversity and post-disaster resilience have united artists in Christchurch and Sendai, Japan, to create ''Shared Lines'', a new exhibition at Toi o Tahuna Gallery.

A dream house in Queenstown is increasingly just that for many people who are priced out of the market, the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust says.

A fire safety officer is investigating the cause of a blaze which threatened a historic cottage near Arrow Junction yesterday.

Progress made by Queenstown's health watchdog in its first 15-months will not be slowed by the resignation of one of its key members, chairwoman Vanessa van Uden says.

Wakatipu school leaders have welcomed the Government's confirmation a new $14 million primary school is scheduled to open in 2015, catering for about 500 pupils, but questions remain on its zoning and intake stages.

New Zealand satellite television viewers can watch the first episode of Top of the Lake tonight, an acclaimed crime drama inspired by the landscape near the Routeburn Track which film-maker Jane Campion found 15 years ago.

Queenstown youth and their Southern peers were forced to think on their feet and take a global perspective on some of the major issues of the day when they participated in the first Greater Otago Model United Nations held outside Dunedin over the weekend.

Queenstown Primary School is $30,000 better off after its popular annual school fair was held on Saturday.

More than 50 residents have made use of the Wakatipu health shuttle in the first four months of its operation, and St John urges more people of all ages to use the service.

Winning the chef competition at Remarkables Market may encourage Jayne McCanny to explore a career in cuisine.