Matthew Haggart

Controversial environmentalist Julian Haworth has retired from the presidency of the Upper Clutha Environmental Society and intends to leave the watchdog group's executive committee, next year.

Lakes Environmental is trying to find ways to ease its monthly debt burden of up to $1 million after its owner, the Queenstown Lakes District Council, threw out its plan for fee changes.

Beleaguered indoor climbing facility BaseCamp Wanaka is set to reopen as a Lone Star restaurant.

Finding a break in the film industry can be elusive and is often about putting yourself in the right place at the right time.

Queenstown Lakes District ratepayers have incurred an average rates bill rise of 6.3%, after a 10-year-plan described by two councillors as financially imprudent was adopted in Wanaka yesterday.

Management of Wanaka Airport is to be handled by the Queenstown Airport Corporation (QAC).

Simon Spencer-Bower's flying history includes such highlights as being named one of the world's top aerobatic pilots.

Southern Lakes skifield operators say early season business is booming, after a weekend when both the region and industry were recognised as New Zealand's top winter tourist drawcards.

Cardrona Alpine Resort was in pristine order for opening day yesterday.

Rising indie-punk outfit The Slur-Tones is hitting the road and coming home.

Fires at the centre of an arson investigation in Wanaka are estimated to have caused about $500,000 worth of damage.

The Cardrona Alpine Resort and Treble Cone Ski Area are opening this weekend with what has been uniformly described by Southern Lakes skifield operators as "the best opening conditions in a decade". Wanaka reporter Matthew Haggart profiles the resort's two major commercial fields.

Treble Cone staff members sampled their skifield's snow conditions during a mountain orientation tour yesterday, ahead of the field's official opening on Saturday.

Hold the front page. The sun shone in Wanaka yesterday afternoon.

Snow Sports New Zealand will implement a mentoring programme for young athletes in the wake of a teenage binge-drinking incident at a junior development camp in Wanaka recently.

Teenage snowsports athletes at the centre of a binge-drinking session at a Wanaka backpackers, which left a 13-year-old in an alcohol-induced coma, are to face disciplinary action from Snowsports New Zealand officials.

Queenstown has sometimes been referred to as "more Auckland than Auckland" and now the adventure capital's relationship with neighbouring resort town Wanaka could form a blueprint for New Zealand's first super city.

Falling commercial rental rates in Queenstown's CBD are unlikely to be replicated in Helwick St, in Wanaka, the property valuer at the centre of a rental rates row says.