Latest News

Police are investigating the cause of a fatal accident between a bus and a car on the Crown Range Road about 10.15am yesterday (15 July) with the road closed for the rest of the day and into the evening.

Kiwi actor Sir Sam Neill has died, his family has announced. "It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life."

Queenstown will host what is believed to be the first event of its kind in the region this July, bringing together local business owners, creatives, students, technologists and AI practitioners for a community-led AI hackathon.

Five people have been injured after the Queenstown Shotover Jet crashed into rocks on the Kawarau river. Emergency services were called to the scene at about 3:15pm.

A bold and visionary plan to expand the lakeside township of Kingston into a self-sufficient southern community, with reduced reliance on Queenstown for jobs, services and travel, has been unveiled this week.

With heavy snow, wet roads and warnings of more overnight freezing causing black ice, Police and are urging school holiday drivers to take extreme caution and obey the rules.

Rescuers and mountain safety experts are urging climbers to ‘know their descent route’ before taking on big climbs, after two strong local climbers in their 20s had to be rescued late at night from a steep, vertical ice slope, high on Mount Aspiring overnight on Tuesday, 30 June.

Two strong local climbers in their mid-20s had to be rescued on Tuesday night (30 June) after becoming lost and abseiling down onto a vertical ice slope high on Mount Aspiring, sparking a long, tricky and technical helicopter rescue.

In total there were 14 one-star restaurants including: Inati in Christchurch, led by chef Simon Levy, Ben Bayly's Ahi, seafood led Ortega in Wellington, The Estate on Auckland's Waiheke Island, Rātā in Queenstown, Logan Brown in Wellington, Jano Bistro also in Wellington, lunch-only spot Tussock Hill in Christchurch, Kika in Wānaka, Auckland's Paris Butter, Mudbrick on Waiheke Island and Sherwood and Amisfield in Queenstown.

Future Hospitality Group’s Odd Saint and Little Blackwood have been crowned New Zealand’s Best Café and Best Bar at the 2026 LION Hospitality New Zealand Awards for Excellence.

Police are working to identify a group of men after a driver was allegedly assaulted when forced to stop his car on Gorge Road at 3.50am on Sunday, 21 June. Constable Amanda Shute says three men had been stopped in the middle of the road causing the vehicle to slow down and stop.

Sixteen volunteer firefighters from Frankton, Queenstown and Arrowtown took part in what was a tricky rescue after a young woman in her 30s or 40s fell about 6m down a steep bank off a walking trail above the Kawarau River on Saturday night (13 June).

A new annual survey aimed at understanding how people across the Queenstown Lakes District and Aotearoa find, interpret and trust information has been launched by Wānaka-based consultancy Scope Communications.

Police have arrested eight people and seized cash and drugs following search warrants in the Queenstown area.

Quick thinking by an onsite manager saved Arrowtown restaurant Slow Cuts and neighbouring businesses in the Royal Oak building from being burnt to the ground last Thursday, 4 June as did prompt action by local firefighters, FENZ Otago Lakes Group assistant commander Nic McQuillan says.

Local firefighters pulled off some impressive feats at the Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge recently, with Frankton volunteers becoming the first local team to win a grand trophy for their fundraising, placing third in their 6 to 9-member category nationally.

Queenstown ski resort The Remarkables will become New Zealand’s largest, with a proposed $150 million-plus expansion into the Doolans Basin. The highly-anticipated project, which has been years in the making, will see the ski resort increase significantly in size to 711 hectares from its current 449 hectares, and will feature NZ’s longest gondola (2.7km long).

Burglars who targeted 11th Avenue in Frankton, hit twice in the past week, were “pretty determined”, those caught on security camera even bringing empty plastic milk containers to fill from the beer taps, co-owner Gino Mendoza says.

The return of a new Queenstown Winter Festival-inspired event – Snow Fest – has officially heralded the start to winter, with event organisers toasting its success. Snow Fest concluded on Saturday after a two-day programme of sold-out community events that gave a nod to the much-loved former Winter Festival, which ran annually from 1975-2023.

A couple of alleged, teenage poachers – one from Lake Hayes and one from Cromwell, were spoken to by Police who executed search warrants early yesterday after two prize breeding stags, worth between $US30,000 and $US50,000, were shot and killed on a Bendigo farm.