Matthew Haggart

Wanaka skateboard enthusiasts have raised more than $8000 for a planned extension to the existing Pembroke Park skate park.

Incidents of vandalism are to be scrutinised by respective Queenstown Lakes District Council departments in a bid to quantify how much damage and destruction is being done to community facilities.

The Pisa Range cross-country skifield Snow Farm will open its 50km of groomed trails to the public today.

An Invercargill-based landlord has hit back at claims from some of her Wanaka tenants that commercial rental rates in the town's main street are unfair and unreasonable.

One of the Upper Clutha Tracks Trust's signature projects, a $500,000 trail linking Lake Hawea and Albert Town, is nearing completion.

A sniff may be the typical hello between your average canine chums, but that certainly doesn't compare to the kind of greeting reserved for specialist avalanche sniffer dogs.

Southern Lakes skifields are maintaining a fiscally prudent approach to the season's start and are ready to react should visitor numbers exceed expectations.

Treble Cone skifield has appointed two Wanaka businessmen to the company's board of directors, in a shake-up which has resulted in the redundancy of New Zealand's first and only female skifield manager.

Night riding came to the Snow Park on Thursday night, with local and international skiers and snowboarders pitting themselves against each other and the challenge of a stair feature recently installed at the specialist free-style terrain park.

Snow Park has scrapped its season-pass deals for the coming winter, in the face of uncertain economic times for the niche ski- and snowboard-terrain facility.

Wanaka skifields Snow Park and Treble Cone have both enjoyed the benefits of a winter which featured good snow cover on the mountains.

Upper Clutha social service providers are reeling as the effects of the economic recession jeopardise their future - at a time when they are needed most.

Japanese rider Kudoh Kohhei turned in a jaw-dropping final run to snatch victory from his countryman Ryoh Aono at the FIS World Cup halfpipe event at Cardrona yesterday.

Gustav Legnavsky may have a way to go to match the freeskiing exploits of the Wells siblings, of Wanaka, but his freeskiing down Cardrona's Olympic standard super-pipe impressed at the national junior freeski and snowboarding championships this week.

Cardrona Alpine Resort has secured hosting rights for the 2009 New Zealand Burton Open - one of the largest events on the lucrative international snowboarding circuit.