A harrowing statement from Katharine Webb to police has revealed the horrific minutes leading up to her children's deaths.

The duplicity of Edward Livingstone has emerged during the coroner's inquest into the death of himself and his children.

Paul Currie accidentally used a broad-spectrum herbicide to treat his grass, prompting his neighbours to think he had been targeted by vandals.

Speed limits need not have been posted in Tapanui, West Otago, during filming of Walt Disney Pictures' "Pete's Dragon" on Saturday. Local residents came out to participate and watch the filming of "Pete's Dragon", taking place in Tapanui.

Otago Peninsula jewelled geckos smuggled to Germany are the first to return to New Zealand under strengthened rules to crack down on poaching.

A French tourist who backed her rental car over a cliff above Lake Wanaka early yesterday afternoon had a lucky escape from serious injury.

A Chinese tourist has admitted causing the death of Oamaru 5-year-old Ruby Jay Marris.

Nature's treasures keep drawing people south to the Teviot Valley, finds Elisabeth Easther.

A castle, gardens and penguins give the student town of Dunedin a more refined air, finds Sam Wicks.

A pilot and his passenger had a lucky escape after their light plane crashed on Tomahawk Beach yesterday afternoon after ''spluttering'' over the city.

Home and business owners were mopping up yesterday ready to assess the damage after an hour long thunderstorm hammered Alexandra.

Louise Richardson's kids are so charmed by scenery and history they manage to put down their devices for a while.

It has been a "bad and very sad year already" for aviation in the south, the Civil Aviation Authority says.

The problem of wilding pines spreading through the McKenzie Basin and Upper Waitaki Valley is a hole into which government money has poured, and yet the trees persist.

Tributes are flowing in today for two of New Zealand's most experienced Cessna pilots who died in a horror crash that also claimed the lives of their two children.

Four bodies - believed to be from the same family - were last night recovered from the wreckage of a light aircraft near Wanaka.

Police have recovered four bodies from a light plane that crashed near Wanaka.

A shopping company is being investigated over revelations some of its door-to-door staff regularly visit beneficiaries in a Dunedin boarding house.

The Dunedin City Council's group debt has dropped by more than $25 million on the back of stronger results by its companies, new figures show.

The company running Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium is promising a "completely different ball game" despite confirming another $1 million loss.

Our ancestors would have ventured deeper into our back country if they'd been able to do so in a powerful jetboat, writes Lisa Scott.

Ruby Jay Marris, the five year-old killed in a crash involving a foreign driver in Otago, has been remembered as “cherished and loved” and a "fun-loving princess".

Six60's return to Dunedin's student quarter was marred when a man watching the gig suffered moderate to serious injuries when he fell from a roof.

''Everyone just ran and glass showered down on to the road.'' Exploding glass caused a shower of fragments onto Dunedin's main street yesterday.

Six overseas drivers have appeared in court over the past 24 hours after a series of crashes that have focused attention on tourist driving.

A heartbroken family are mourning the loss of 5-year-old Ruby Jay Marris after a car crash involving a foreign driver in Otago.

The 5-year-old Oamaru girl killed in a crash in North Otago on Saturday has been named by police.