Marjorie Cook

Wanaka café owner Chris Hadfield (47) has been seen but not heard around town for several years.

The winter accommodation market is in full swing in Wanaka as seasonal workers begin to arrive for the ski season.

Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow 2008 has returned a modest but undisclosed profit and the organising trust is restructuring to improve the future financial return.

After 20 years organising Wanaka's popular Warbirds airshow, general manager Gavin Johnston (63) has decided to call it a day.

Overcast conditions did not dampen the spirits of 130 orienteers and multisporters taking part in the Cardrona rogaine on Saturday.

Wanaka St John station manager Don McMillan says the service is in good heart as it gears up for the winter snow sports season, despite concerns expressed by the town's GPs about a "frustrating lack of ambulance capacity".

The rezoning of Wanaka's Kirimoko Block is back on the Queenstown Lakes District Council agenda after two neighbouring developers reached a private and amicable agreement with the landowners and decided to withdraw from an Environment Court appeal.

The St John ambulance system in Wanaka is "slow, hide-bound, unsafe" and only surviving because of the goodwill of general practitioners, Wanaka Medical Centre doctors have told the Minister of Health David Cunliffe.

Plans are afoot for a new police station for Wanaka and more officers to fill it.

Wanaka skeleton racer Louise Corcoran (29) ended her northern hemisphere season on a high at the weekend, winning the America's Cup at Lake Placid in the United States at the weekend.

The small but booming Wanaka Swimming Club is punching above its weight, having finished this summer's season ranked sixth out of the 20 clubs competing at the Otago championships.

A Lake Hawea woman was treated for a back injury in Dunstan Hospital yesterday morning after the car in which she was a passenger left State Highway 6 between Maungawera and Albert Town about 8.15am and rolled about 15m down a bank.

After 10 months in the pipeline, New Zealand's first plastic ice-skating rink has the approval of Lakes Environmental planners and construction is likely to start in Albert Town early next week.

Wanaka police have changed their rosters so two officers will patrol together on Friday and Saturday nights, in response to community and staff concerns about violent attacks on sole constables and the risk of injuries.

Wanaka developer Par Hallberg says he has the resources to proceed with his stalled multimillion-dollar development at the Grand Mecure Oakridge Resort.

Financial issues were the motivating factor in deciding to sell Wanaka's purpose-built, new sports climbing facility, BaseCamp owner Stewart Blennerhassett says.