John Lewis

It used to be a gardener's nightmare - people dancing on the petunias and turning the back lawn into a mud pit suitable for army training exercises.

Three Dunedin schools have received funding from the Government to strengthen their school relationships with China.

Nearly freezing to death in -21degC and melting shoe soles are just some of the joys of driving a 1930 Hudson Great Eight for 77-year-old Heidi Hetzer.

Staff and pupils are beginning to gain some perspective on what Taieri College's new administration and teaching blocks will look like.

When 40 Japanese school exchange pupils from Ichikawa High School met one of their sporting heroes, Japan and Highlanders rugby halfback Fumiaki Tanaka, naturally there was not a word of English spoken.

Popular BBC television documentary Coast is being filmed in Dunedin and is tipped to give the region tourism publicity ''you couldn't afford to pay for''.

Rather than being immersed in homework after school, about a dozen Columba College pupils were up to their necks in pens, paper, brochures and other items yesterday.

It is unusual for a school to take on the atmosphere of a jazz club, but when Calder Prescott is involved, anything can happen.

Several years spent planning and planting hundreds of shrubs to beautify the Gladstone Rd railway corridor in Mosgiel have been stripped away in a matter of hours by a KiwiRail ditch digger.

Scouts and girl guides from around Otago had their first rehearsal for this year's Gang Show, at Waiora Scout Camp, at the weekend.

Terf Aisi appeared to be the odd one out at the Otago Anniversary Day races at Wingatui yesterday.

The battle for world records raged in Caversham yesterday.

Descendants of the Kennard family are flooding into Waikouaiti and Dunedin this weekend to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the family's arrival in Otago.

Cyclone Pam has ended months of planning and fundraising for pupils at Columba College, whose planned trip to Vanuatu has been cancelled.

Until recently, there was no such thing as a guilt-free supercar.

Dunedin South Labour MP Clare Curran said the Southern District Health Board ''dropped the ball'' during a health select committee meeting in Wellington yesterday.

As Tamara Cuttriss blacked out and went under the water for the final time, her last thought was: ''This is it. What a waste. I haven't even lived yet.''

A classroom at Taieri Beach School is about to get its first makeover since the 1980s.