A 59-year-old farm worker died when his tractor overturned and plunged down a steep slope on a Teviot farm, near Millers Flat in central Otago yesterday afternoon.

Flying debris and trees and branches falling across roads could make it unsafe to be outside if predicted severe northwest gales hit Otago and Southland today.

Since the death of celebrity sheep Shrek in June 2011, a Queenstown taxidermist has been inundated with inquiries into the status of his most high-profile "client".

The green waste dumped and leaching into Dunedin's urban streams is "offensive" and endangering the brown trout, Fish & Game says.

A truck driver was trapped in his vehicle when it crashed on Lindis Pass early this morning, blocking the major Otago highway for several hours.

Otago's Courtney Duncan is still beating up the boys, even though she reckons she's "not up to speed yet".

An Alexandra rest home resident who loved sweets choked to death on one of his favourites, Turkish Delight, the Alexandra Coroners Court heard.

A safe containing almost $11,000 in cash has been found in bush in the Catlins - missed by thieves who took passports and jewellery in another compartment.

Herald Online reporter Paul Harper is making his way around the South Island by rail.

Greg McGee is the author of The Open Side, the biography of All Black captain Richie McCaw. He is also a literary gender bender: McGee

K2 is the most toxic and harmful of the synthetic cannabis products he has witnessed in patients, an emergency department specialist says.