Rebecca Fox

About one person drowned every three days during the summer in New Zealand.

A management group will soon be formed to ''convert the good work and intent'' of the Pukekura reserves management plan at Taiaroa Head ''into action'', Department of Conservation Coastal Otago manager Robin Thomas says.

''Marmegeddon'' ended yesterday as Marmite lovers flocked to supermarkets to pick up a jar of their beloved yeasty spread.

A leading global warming sceptic, Lord Christopher Monckton, will speak in Dunedin next month. His visit is part of a national ''Climate Freedom Tour'' and will include a lunch and an evening function on April 23.

The Otago Regional Council wants to avoid a ''crisis'' and is urging mining rights holders for water to act well before their permits expire in 2021.

A significant number of bores in North Otago are continuing to leak because of ''chemically aggressive'' water, despite Otago Regional Council policies seeking to prevent uncontrolled seepage.

Moves to beef up measures to combat air pollution in Lawrence are backed up by the latest monitoring results.

As the rain has fallen, so have the temperatures.

All but one chick have survived one of the hottest and driest hatching periods experienced at the Taiaroa Head albatross colony.

Many proposed legislative changes flowing out of the Government appear to be a ''sustained attack on local democracy'', Otago Regional Council chairman Stephen Woodhead says.