Blanket Bay resident Polly Mustard thought she had prepared for the worst when she parked her car down the road from her house to make sure she could get to work on time in case forecast snow blocked her driveway.

Rueben Skipper was bodyboarding barrel after barrel at Aramoana last Thursday afternoon when suddenly "there was no more water - just sand".

A man who told police he thought "lamb chops on the barbecue would be nice" has been convicted of wilfully ill-treating two sheep he killed at a farm on Christmas Day.

A Dunedin woman had a narrow escape when a landslip trapped her inside her home and brought a tree down on her car.

The family of a Dunedin man found dead in a Thai apartment complex are distraught and angry they learnt of his death through media reports rather than police.

Finding a 10-year-old girl in the back seat of a car driven by a woman who recorded a breath-alcohol level nearly three times the limit has dismayed and disappointed Dunedin police.

Sinkholes at the Esplanade at St Clair will be filled with gravel as concern builds about high tides expected later this week.

'Sort it out yourself' 88-year-old Len Hesford was told by his local DHB after he was billed for home help he was entitled to for free.

Bleak weather and a move to Dunedin's Middle Beach failed to dampen the spirits of swimmers at the annual Polar Plunge yesterday.

A prolonged and cruel Valentine's Day attack on a Dunedin man has ended in jail for two of his friends - the offenders.

A new $23,000 clock in Mosgiel, near Dunedin, is ''overstating'' temperatures by up to 10degC.

Move over, Gareth Morgan. A Dunedin woman concerned about the number of feral cats roaming the city has a radical solution for ridding Dunedin of such its undesirables.

A complaint against Dunedin judge Stephen O'Driscoll has led the Chief District Court Judge to decide he should no longer sit in the city's courts.

A nationwide search is on for appropriately skilled people to provide advice on fixing the Esplanade in Dunedin and retaining sand at St Clair Beach in the long term.

An Otago University student who went missing after leaving a friend's flat on Monday night has been found in Alexandra.

Controversial plans for a $100 million 27-level Dunedin hotel have been knocked back.

Scarfie favourite, Dunedin's Captain Cook Tavern, could close by the middle of this month.

Sinkholes in the Esplanade at St Clair could get bigger over the next week, but the Dunedin City Council is happy the damage is contained to that immediate area.

A University of Otago building programme to the tune of more than $350 million will be "massively positive" for the Dunedin economy, Otago Chamber of Commerce president Peter McIntyre says.

The temporary freezing of Dunedin's economy in this week's snowfall "ground the city to a halt" and cost "upwards of $10 million," a commerce expert says.

Police have appealed for any sighting of Dunedin convicted murderer George Charles Trounson, who is wanted on a warrant to be recalled to prison.

Contractors continue to battle sea, sand and snow to shore up a gap under Dunedin's St Clair sea wall.

Holes, one large enough to swallow a bench, started appearing in a Dunedin street yesterday afternoon as big swells pounded the coast.

Dozens of revellers taking part in a "student flat crawl" damaged property and invaded a North Dunedin dairy.

When meeting the Earl of Dunmore for the first time, there is an expectation one will be greeted by a Scots peer with a thick Highland burr.

Two students who started selling boxes of meat to their Dunedin peers last year have trebled their client base, hired staff and are now eyeing markets further north.

Otago Boys' High School rector Clive Rennie is backing the decisions of two teachers who had to be rescued along with 10 pupils from the Rock and Pillar Range on Saturday night.

Gareth Lawrence Smither, who murdered his ex-girlfriend in Dunedin almost 16 years ago, has had some limited unescorted ground leave, a New Zealand Parole Board decision notes.