Two Korean nationals are dead after a horror smash at Blackhead, Dunedin, yesterday.

A 40 metre elm tree is driving its owner and neighbours mad - but Dunedin's Council says "nuisance factors" aren't sufficient justification for taking it down.

Plans for a huge expansion of New Zealand's most luxurious golfing and lifestyle resort have been unveiled today.

Some new software released in Dunedin yesterday will be a breath of fresh air for breast-feeding mums.

Hundreds of overseas tourists caught freedom camping illegally in the Queenstown Lakes area are leaving the country without paying the $200 fine.

A fugitive couple on the run from police sold their getaway vehicle in Dunedin, the man offering a $50,000 bounty for their capture says.

Horse racing trainer Steve Anderton has died in hospital after a freak accident at the family stables near Mosgiel yesterday.

No charges will be laid in relation to the death of a man in Otago Corrections Facility four years ago.

Shandelle Battersby checks into a remote Central Otago lodge that's worth the journey.

The death of a puppy found inside a suitcase in a Milton cemetery is being treated as suspicious, a SPCA Otago inspector says.

Trouble has again hit the Melilla 201. It's been tied up at a Dunedin wharf for two years, and nearly ran aground as it tried to leave yesterday.

'The time has come for reality to sink in,' said a judge as he ordered an Invercargill woman to dispose of 22 of cats.

Department of Conservation gives warning as ground crews launch another onslaught against a large scrub fire ripping through more than 300ha at Arthurs Pass.

He spent 18 months without power after his electricity supplier refused to reconnect him after a storm. Now he's won an out-of-court settlement - and an apology.

An Invercargill woman went to great lengths to hide her face yesterday during a court hearing over the 25 cats she keeps on her property.

A Taiwanese visitor who drowned at a Central Otago lake last week has today been named by police.

As hot, dry weather threatens to create a drought, farmers are preparing for the worst.

A search is underway for a swimmer who went missing in Cromwell in Central Otago this afternoon.

A search and rescue operation is underway near Queenstown after a German tourist failed to return a locator beacon by his "panic date".

The object that flew through a windscreen, killing a young driver, has never been found - and now a coroner has said, it's unlikely that it ever will be.

'Would you rather have distressed kids in the back of the car, or dead kids splattered across the windscreen?' A man defends taking keys off a tourist driver.

Severe thunderstorms may hit Dunedin, North Otago and Clutha this afternoon bringing heavy rain and hail as large as 20mm to some areas, MetService warns.

A member of the public stopped a tourist driving a rental car on the Lindis Pass and took the vehicle's keys, after narrowly avoiding a head-on collision.

"He had the wind up him, so to speak." A 5-year-old was found clutching on to reeds after being blown across Lake Waihola on an inflatable toy this afternoon.