Marjorie Cook

A planned air race for corporate high-flyers may bring up to 40 privately-owned jet aircraft to the Warbirds Over Wanaka Airshow next April and boost business links between China and New Zealand.

Clear skies and jubilant skiers featured when Cardrona Alpine Ski Resort opened for the season yesterday morning, but the weather closed in at noon, bringing more snow to the mountains and rain to Wanaka township.

As coastal South Island wallowed in snow-bound misery yesterday, Wanaka was an oasis of calm and blue skies and easily-negotiated roads.

Wanaka triathlete and baker Simone Maier (31) is starting to reveal more talents than a strong swim-bike-run.

Wanaka's town centre is ticking over quietly and several multistorey buildings are in the pipeline. But how far should town centre development spread? Reporter Marjorie Cook explores some of the issues.

A High Court telephone conference has been scheduled for August 1 in the Good Group Ltd's defamation proceedings against Wanaka anti-Kronic campaigner Nigel Greening, the owner of the Wanaka Sun, Aaron Heath, and the newspaper's editor Sue Wards.

Extreme caution on the Crown Range pass is being urged this weekend, as school holidays begin and skiers head outdoors.

Amid the uproar over a proposed Wanaka Rowing Club shed is a submission from left field - rowers should wear life jackets.

It may be frigid in the 9degC waters of Lake Wanaka, but when it is snowing it is even colder out of the water.

Mount Aspiring Station, arguably New Zealand's best-known high-country farm, has completed the Crown pastoral lease tenure review process and boosted the public conservation estate by 7345ha.

A Saudi Arabian family more used to sand than snow spent a cold and miserable Sunday night trapped in their campervan, stuck in snow on the Crown Range road.

The commercial vehicle investigation unit of the New Zealand Police is looking into why a trailer unit rolled on State Highway 8 in the Lindis Valley yesterday, spilling a small amount of milk on the road.

Yesterday's long-awaited first snowfall of the ski season delighted a family of Australian holidaymakers, who have waited in Wanaka for a week to ski at Cardrona Alpine Ski Resort.

Visitors to Wanaka should be able to see a mothballed Skyhawk fighter jet at the new Warbirds and Wheels visitor attraction, due to open later this year.

A mothballed RNZAF Skyhawk has found a new home at Wanaka Airport.