Rebecca Fox

Looking after the chicks orphaned by the mysterious deaths of adult yellow-eyed penguins on Otago Peninsula has become a full-time job.

Swimmers are delighted to be back in the Southern District Health Board therapeutic pool's warm waters.

With emotional voices, the congregation of Knox Church farewelled its minister of eight years yesterday.

The success of the campaign to keep neurosurgery in Otago and Southland was demonstrated last night with a celebration to welcome Dunedin's new neurosurgeons.

Council support services manager Gerard Collings said construction of the council chamber, which had a tender price of $615,000, was on schedule with the goal of it being completed in April. Wall frames went up this week and the steel work was expected to go in next week.

New Zealand's regional councils have been asked by the Government to set limits to improve water quality. Rebecca Fox looks at the different ways South Island councils are interpreting those directions while Sally Rae talks to farmers about the impact on their businesses.

A family of little shags nesting beside the Dunedin Botanic Garden duck pond have grown to become a small community.

Dunedin may have had its second-hottest January on record but it was still the coolest of the country's main centres.

Dogs are dying and suffering heat stress as people fail to consider their pets' susceptibility to hot weather.

An albatross has died as heat stress and fly strike hit the protected population of northern royal albatrosses at Taiaroa Head on Otago Peninsula.

While the ''H word'' (heat wave) might have been bandied about this week, Otago temperatures are not expected to be record-breaking.