Rebecca Fox

Rainfall in the southern hydroelectricity lake areas is "good news" even though it was not as much as first hoped, Raineffects hydrologist Dave Stewart says.

Otago recreational fishing representatives, still smarting from the Ministry of Fisheries decision to ban set netting along Otago's coast, have decided not to attend a shellfish management group meeting tonight.

More conclusive data is needed on the number of sea lion deaths during the squid fishing season in the Auckland Islands, even though a reduction in numbers has been estimated this season, the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust says.

A house which cost less than $350,000 to build has won the supreme award in the Southern region house of the year awards announced in Invercargill on Saturday.

"Basically crap" is the impression an Otago Regional Council water quality report gives of three of Dunedin City's significant waterways, Cr Michael Deaker says.

Otago regional councillors have voted 7-4 to financially back the Awatea St stadium in today's crunch meeting - removing the project's last political hurdle.

Insults and jeers hurled from a packed public gallery failed to deter seven Otago regional councillors from supporting the council's funding of the Awatea St stadium, although the decision came with conditions some think will be difficult to meet.

Money, education and consultation with industry have failed to achieve the environmental outcomes the council and community desire of dairy farms, Otago regional councillor Duncan Butcher says.

Two or three undecided Otago regional councillors appear to hold the fate of the Awatea St stadium in their hands as the council meets today to vote on funding the project.

Bus fares and compliance monitoring costs will go up if recommendations by the Otago Regional Council's hearing subcommittee are accepted by the council, but the general rate will go down.

They glide and wheel, riding effortlessly on the breeze over the wake behind the boat.

Demand for Central Otago rabbit meat has grown, with nearly 20 supermarkets around the country stocking Tarras Game Foods' products.

While the latest survey of clam beds at Waitati Inlet has shown they are sustainable, the Dunedin company harvesting the shellfish faces challenges from pollution and plans to develop Otago Harbour.

NewZealand's "special tone of voice" when writing hymns will be one characteristic Emeritus Prof Colin Gibson will speak about at international hymn society conferences next month.

Seven years after a 1080 poison drop in the northern Blue Mountains in West Otago reportedly killed up to 75% of the area's fallow deer, another poisoning operation is to go ahead, with hunters' reluctant consent.

East Taieri School pupils got into the spirit of World Environment Day with enthusiasm yesterday, swinging shovels over their shoulders and carrying their plants and trowels as they headed off to create a new home for skinks and geckos.

From a 10-part challenge to be sustainable, to pupils helping clean up stream habitat, a variety of activities are being planned throughout Otago to mark World Environment Day.

A basic right of every New Zealander to put a dinghy in the sea to get a "feed of fish" will be denied by new measures to protect threatened dolphins, Dunedin recreational fishing advocates say.