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he government is being accused of quietly expanding the reach of its public service cuts to pay for promised tax breaks.

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission has launched a marine safety inquiry into an accident involving the scenic cruise vessel M.V Fiordland Navigator.

A 28-year-old man has been arrested and charged with Excess Blood Alcohol Causing Death, over the crash that killed Royalburn Station butcher Outrega Anderson.

A 10-year-old girl has died after being swept down the Marian Creek in Fiordland National Park today.

Wānaka snowboarder Lucia Georgalli has won silver at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon, South Korea.

The RealNZ tourist vessel, The Fiordland Navigator, broadcast a mayday call after running aground in Doubtful Sound yesterday evening at 6.15pm.

The ‘people’s poet’ Hone Tuwhare has inspired four acclaimed printmakers to create a visual connection with the written word.

The dates for the 2024 NZ Mountain Film & Book Festival have been released and filmmakers and writers are invited to enter their work in the annual mountain film and book competitions.

The search is on for one local rangatahi (young person) to join a national mentoring programme designed to develop the leadership capability of young Māori across Aotearoa New Zealand.

Queenstown Bike Fest 2024 "has been a blast" so far, says organiser Emmerson Wilken. The 10-day festival got underway on Friday with a Lake Jump at Steamer Wharf, with bikers pulling backflips and other tricks into Lake Wakatipu from a ramp, in front of a raucous crowd.

Kiwi icons the Topp Twins have been confirmed as the lead entertainment act for this year’s anticipated Wānaka A&P Show.

Hundreds of thousands of litres of partially treated human effluent spilled into a Queenstown swamp before it was stopped.

They may be relatively remote from the main urban areas but that hasn’t stopped the Glenorchy community from leading the charge in the southern region with its hugely successful door-to-door community composting programme.

South Island firearms owners, especially those from the Southern and Canterbury Police districts, are leading the way in the new Firearm Registry.

Freshwater anglers are being asked to keep an eye out for pest species after a grass carp was caught in an Otago lake. It is believed the carp was released into contained ponds near Queenstown, but may have escaped during spring floods and swum down river into Lake Dunstan, said Otago Fish and Game.

Sunday morning's torrential rain will have been welcomed by the lower South Island's rural firefighters. Last week, the fire risk was 'extreme' across the regions after weeks of dry hot summer days combined with windy conditions - turning the wooded hills and scrub into a tinderbox.

Council contractors and officers are responding urgently to an overflow of partially treated wastewater from one of the poo ponds at Shotover Wastewater Treatment Plant.

With sunny days forecast and plenty of customers ready and willing to book, tourism businesses say summer is off to a cracking start.

Town and country came together for the 108th time at the Lake Hayes A&P Show on Saturday.

Off-road motorbikes and four-wheel drive vehicles are damaging fragile terrain and threatening native bird life around historic Macetown, Skippers township and the Chinamans Flat.