Lynda van Kempen

A record number of southern firefighters took part in this year's Sky Tower Stair Challenge, raising more than $63,500 in the process.

Alexandra police warn they will look at whether they can close down Facebook accounts if they get more instances of people arranging fights via social media.

A proposal to seal the Cross Recreation Centre car park and access road attracted more than three-quarters of the submissions to the Clutha District Council draft annual plan.

The support shown by major employers at a jobs summit at Balclutha appears to have mitigated the potential disaster looming after 54 recent redundancies in the Clutha district, Mayor Bryan Cadogan says.

A farmer missing overnight on Mt Pisa arrived home safely this morning, police said.

They might not be the most fragrant sleeping companions, but if you have to spend a freezing night in the open, the farm dogs are definitely man's best friend, says Lowburn farmer Dave McLean.

A synthetic cannabis addict who has been ''clean'' for 18 months has urged the Central Otago community to support other addicts going through withdrawal once the product is banned.

A year on from the opening of the $25 million Highlands Motorsport Park, owner Tony Quinn says the facility has proved ''twice as good as I thought it would be''.

A mother and her 2-year-old child had a lucky escape from their burning home in Ranfurly this morning but a severely burnt dog had to be put down.

Great bales of fire are the last thing you want to see in your rear-vision mirror when you're steaming down the highway, driving a truck-and-trailer unit loaded with straw.

Opposition to spending $66,000 developing a Cromwell brand and a lack of ''buy-in'' from businesspeople has forced the district community board to reconsider its plans.

After a confirmed sighting yesterday of an elderly man reported missing from Cromwell, police now believe the man is making his own way home to Auckland.

There was no magic solution to reducing the suicide rate in this country, but a broad-based community response to the problem was worth trying, suicide researcher Roger Mulder told a public meeting in Alexandra this week.

The Vincent Community Board's youngest member, Mel Bell (29), shed a few tears as she announced her resignation yesterday.

Three years after being earmarked for demolition because of its earthquake risk, Bannockburn's Coronation Hall has been given a reprieve and reopened for business yesterday.