A frightening direct lightning strike at a Mosgiel retirement village yesterday ''caused havoc with the electrics'' and frightened residents and staff.

Terrified girl cowered in her bedroom as three creepy clowns - one with an axe - roamed outside, threatening to kill her.

A snoozing fur seal has been moved on from a Dunedin cyclepath - again.

While Karin Ann Ross was being beaten to death with a hammer, her final act ensured her killer's guilt was etched into his face for all to see.

A St Clair, Dunedin, mother, driving with her young twins in the rear of her car, smashed into a parked ute after drinking two bottles of wine.

A jury has unanimously found a Dunedin cleaner guilty of beating his boss to death with a hammer.

A High Court jury has retired to consider its verdict in the case of a Dunedin cleaner accused of murdering his supervisor.

The Crown says a Dunedin cleaner beat his boss to death after dragging her out of a vehicle in which she tried to escape.

High temperatures indicate Kiwis could be in for record-breaking highs this summer.

Passengers faced lengthy delays at Dunedin Airport yesterday, after a crack was discovered in the windscreen of a Virgin Australia flight bound for Brisbane.

'Why don't they shoot the bloody thing?' asks angry Oamaru resident.

While being interviewed by police, a 21-year-old cleaner accused of murder stood by previous comments that he did not care the victim was dead.

Cell-tower data presented to a Dunedin court has raised questions over the location of a 21-year-old cleaner accused at the time of an alleged murder.

A new Queenstown house has become a local curiosity.

Re-elected community board member faces assault charge.

A woman is believed to be in a serious condition after a crash near St Leonards this afternoon.

Sales on the first charter flight from Dunedin to see the aurora australis are taking off and the trip's organiser is considering making the flight an annual event.

A man charged with arson after a house fire in the Dunedin suburb of Concord will apply for bail tomorrow.

The race to elect a new mayor for Auckland and other cities and towns round the country is drawing to a close.

Emergency services faced a gruesome scene as they went to the aid of a lifeless Dunedin woman covered in blood, a High Court jury has been told.

A ''Blueskin blanket'' of thick fog has brought gloom to the coast north of Dunedin after clinging to the landscape for more than 10 days.

The clothes an alleged murderer wore and the hammer he is accused of using to kill his boss looked unfamiliar to the defendant's parents.

At first she thought the body was a rubbish bag, mother of accused told the court today, before realising it was her colleague.

Diamond earrings worn by Gemma Flynn on the red carpet for fiance Richie McCaw's film sell for $2,510.

An 18-storey five-star hotel in the heart of Dunedin is a step closer to reality following the signing of an exclusive deal.

Two days after a Dunedin woman was found dead outside her workplace last December, the blood-soaked hammer allegedly used to bludgeon her was found in a bin outside a colleague's home.

A group of golfers playing through the mist at the St Clair Golf Club on Saturday morning came up against an unusual hazard.

A Dunedin cleaner beat his boss to death with a hammer because she had complained about his conduct at work, the Crown says.

An 11-year-old boy has been rushed to Dunedin hospital after falling almost four metres from a rope swing.

This will be a good weekend to check out the museum or cuddle up with a book as heavy showers and thunderstorms are forecast for parts of the country.