Rosie Manins

Police arrested 38 people at the Alexandra Blossom festival over the weekend, with 21 of those arrested found to have breached the temporary liquor ban.

Axles were broken, tyres turned bald and spectators choked on clouds of petrol fumes - it was a perfect Pro Active Thunder Sunday drag-racing event at Alexandra's airport yesterday.

A quirky, non-motorised race across the Manuherikia River and around Alexandra's clock on the hill heightened Blossom Festival fever last night, with athletes and animals taking to the rocky hill tracks above the town.

Much of Central Otago's shearing community has stopped work in order to support those involved in and affected by a fatal van crash near Poolburn on Thursday morning.

With "just a bit of fun" in mind, old photographs, plastic bags, milk bottles, flax and newspaper were put to good use at Cromwell on Saturday night during the inaugural Trashion Show.

Rats are not a typical treasure hunt item, unless the scavenge is being held at Waipiata.

Prints of a vandalised Grahame Sydney painting are proving lucrative for the Central Otago artist's umbrella group Save Central, as requests for signed copies mount.

Alexandra man Shane Te Ihorangi Cribb has been awarded $17,900.45 costs for his defence of a dangerous driving causing injury charge, dismissed during a re-hearing in the Alexandra District Court in June.

The Central Otago District Council hearings panel has gone against the recommendation of its planning consultant and granted consent for a retail shop selling snow equipment, wakeboards, skates, and associated apparel in Cromwell's industrial area.

The investigation into a fatal van crash near Poolburn early yesterday is likely to be delayed by the number of other fatal or serious crashes being assessed in the Southland and Otago regions.