Lynda van Kempen

How do you train for a national waterway competition with no water?

Police are urging residents in and around Alexandra and Clyde to back Neighbourhood Support being set up in the area, saying the more extensive the network is, the greater the benefits.

The pie cart might not be welcome in Alexandra any more but it is not the end of the road yet for the kerbside diner. A bid to revive the pie cart business was rejected by the Vincent Community Board on Monday but the couple behind the venture, Neil Cameron and Jenny Simmons, of Alexandra, will continue their plan to rebuild the facility and use it as a mobile food outlet.

The ''face'' behind Contact Energy's ill-fated plans for more dams on the Clutha River sympathises with the efforts of Cromwellians a century ago to dam the Kawarau River for irrigation.

The widening gap between annual water connection rates - Omakau residents pay 14 times more than Clyde residents - is one of the reasons behind a rethink of funding for Central Otago water and wastewater schemes.

Ian Glover (89) spent his wedding anniversary on his own last week, 8090km away from his wife of five years.

There was an air of excitement yesterday as Maniototo Area School pupils shared the bus to school with their rugby idols, but it was hard to say who was more thrilled - the children or the Highlanders.

With its main street empty of cars, hawkers offered their wares, people panned for gold and a horse-drawn coach took centre stage as Ophir turned the clock back 150 years on Saturday.

Best bet of the day at the Cromwell Races? Backing Alex Hannagan to win the Fashions on the Field. The Dunedin woman was a dead cert, winning top honours in the contest for the second successive year.

Move aside, Happy Feet. This is a story about an adventurous rockhopper penguin who got lost on the way to the Antarctic and ended up in sunny Alexandra.

Vincent Community Board members have ticked the ''no fat'' option on the menu but the Vincent ward component of Central Otago rates will rise by 6%. The board approved its draft estimates last night and managed to whittle down a planned 6.4% increase.

Hostilities emerged yesterday in a skirmish over how the 700th anniversary next year of the Battle of Bannockburn should be marked in the Central Otago township.

Troublemakers at bars and licensed restaurants in and around Cromwell risk being banned for up to two years from nearly all licensed premises in the area.

Central Otago ratepayers would foot the bill of about $2 million for seismic assessments under the proposed national earthquake-prone building policy and it would cost property owners a total of about $52 million for strengthening work.

The golden run of weather being relished by holiday-makers has boosted the fire risk in Central Otago and prompted a total fire ban, which will come into force tonight at midnight.

Delta Utility Services Ltd has upgraded its work practices since the death of Alexandra lineman Roger Allan Steel to ''make sure we never have another workmate in this position again'', the company said yesterday.