Adventure capital Queenstown has a quiet appeal, writes Cate Foster.

The UK's Daily Telegraph asked NZ Prime Minister John Key, about Queenstown, including his favourite sights, hotels, bars and restaurants.

A former Central Otago goldmine worker has admitted stealing gold-bearing sand, which police later found in a plastic lunchbox at his home.

An Alexandra teenager who got drunk on his 18th birthday and started firing his new airgun haphazardly, shooting his good friend in the knee, was sentenced yesterday to four months community detention.

Archaeologists yesterday battled against the tide to rescue 14th century moa bones from a "significant" historical settlement at Awamoa Creek, south of Oamaru.

An "insurmountable" lack of radiologists has forced the Southern District Health Board to relinquish the southern breast-screening service from the middle of next year, the board announced yesterday.

A pair of US tourists had to be rescued by a police search and rescue team after becoming stranded on the banks of the Haast River yesterday afternoon.

Police investigations into the death of an Otago remand prisoner have been stepped up following the involvement of New Zealand's police watchdog in the case.

Tramper's instinct proves more reliable than GPS in high country, writes Martin Johnston.

Ryan Karl Tapsell, 40, was sentenced in Dunedin District Court on Friday to four years in prison after being convicted of 15 charges under the Fisheries Act 1996.

Donna McIntyre escapes the city on a campervan holiday.

Elisabeth Easther pays our winter wonderland a visit.

Potentially life-saving technology, first trialled on Dunedin roads, is being installed throughout Otago in another world first.

An Otago teenager is lucky to have escaped serious injury after a fireball erupted when she was cooking in a Pine Hill house on Tuesday.

Friends helping an Alexandra teenager celebrate his 18th birthday took cover behind a wheelie bin when he became angry and kept reloading and firing his newly-bought airgun at them.

Otago Bowling Club members split more than $200,000 from the sale of grounds among themselves, instead of giving it to community interests.

Police are extremely concerned for the safety of an Oamaru man who was last seen late on Sunday night.

Sixty-four Dunedin manufacturing workers will have their working week reduced by a day, following KiwiRail's decision to award a manufacturing tender offshore.

Jude Nickolls was brought to tears again yesterday - this time by the kindness and generosity of strangers.

Josie Dale visits Macetown to recapture the atmosphere of the goldrush days.

One of Queenstown's top horsewomen was reduced to tears yesterday after discovering her two horses had their tail hair hacked off.

Police say a drunk teen alleged to have shot a friend in the knee had earlier aimed the gun at friends who were forced to take cover behind a wheelie-bin.

A psychiatrist who treated patients with the drug ketamine for depression was not carrying out research or experimental treatment, it's been found.