Rebecca Fox

A warning to dog owners using the track from the Lawyers Head end of John Wilson Ocean Dr down to the beach has been issued after a young sea lion made the track its home.

Walk into Kevin Tattersall's Signal Hill home and you are greeted by a series of photographs covering each step of its construction. Rebecca Fox finds out more about the passive solar home that has changed the Tattersall family's life.

Reducing winter opening days from seven to five days is just one of the tough decisions the Otago Natural History Trust may have to make about Orokonui Ecosanctuary in the coming year.

No new species were introduced to the Orokonui Ecosanctuary in the past year, and its focus has been ensuring those species already there are settling in.

Artist Fay Mitchell holds her painting Saddle Hill Bleeding which will be the focal point of an exhibition of works featuring the controversial landmark next month. She is looking for people with existing images or paintings of the hill to lend, or recent artworks of it to sell, for the exhibition.

It's official, Otago really is the sunny South.

The family of the teenager who died after being trapped under a waterfall in the Motatapu Gorge at the weekend have described him as a "lively, sporty young man" and asked for privacy to grieve him.

Shane Hildred is used to having his occupation blamed for all the problems with New Zealand's waterways.

Changes afoot in regulations governing water use in Otago will influence the region's prosperity for years to come, the Otago Regional Council says. Rebecca Fox looks at the council's sometimes controversial approach to water quality and quantity.

Dunedin airport recorded the highest national temperature yesterday, for the second time in less than a fortnight.

Dunedin scientists had an exciting opportunity to learn more about the rarely examined Arnoux beaked whale this week.

For the first time in three years, Otago Harbour fishermen are feeling positive about their summer fishing season.

A Ministry of Fisheries proposal to drop the sea lion mortality limit in the Auckland Islands squid fishery is "both bizarre and draconian", the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust says.

Ben "Speedy" Thompson has shown there could be some truth to his self-proclaimed title of being the "fittest man in Dunedin".

The mooring dolphin (at right) was broken when the Kakariki with a tug passed the moored Mount Owen (pictured) in strong southwest winds at Ravensbourne fertiliser wharf earlier this week.

Summer started with a blaze of sunshine in Otago yesterday with Dunedin airport recording the highest official temperature in New Zealand - 29degC at 4pm.

Barbara Blake, with her dog Rupert, looks out into the surf from John Wilson Ocean Dr, Dunedin, from where she and her husband saw a white shark yesterday morning.