The windows were covered over and the keyholes blocked while a team of specialist embroiderers worked ''vast hours'' on delicate lacework which was to end up on Kate Middleton's wedding dress.
''Skinny'' salmon caught in Otago Harbour may be suffering from the same lack of food as Otago's yellow-eyed penguins.
Unexpected ''interest changes'' mean Otago ratepayers will face another year of paying a special rate for Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium.
The Otago Regional Council's water quality plan change is past its last major hurdle.
Three hundred endangered New Zealand sea lion pups in the Auckland Islands have died this season from a disease not yet identified , Conservation Minister Nick Smith says.
A survey criticising the impact of intensive agricultural expansion on the environment has been labelled by farming groups emotive, unethical, oversimplified and ''just plain wrong''.
The new research station to be built on the environmentally protected Auckland Islands, 465km south of Bluff, will be named after the late Sir Peter Blake.
As the first artist in residence at Dunedin historic home Olveston, Manu Berry has fallen for its ''fairy-tale'' feel and rich history.
Urgent interim measures need to be taken to protect the endangered New Zealand sea lion population given the serious rate of decline in pup numbers in the Auckland Islands, scientists and conservationists say.
People should continue to take care when walking their dogs near Otago waterways as potentially toxic algae could be present on banks as well as in the water after recent high rainfall, the Otago Regional Council says.
Fewer of the southwesterly and westerly weather patterns which have made for an unsettled summer are predicted to affect Otago this autumn, Niwa says.
Conservation Minister Nick Smith may break his silence later this week on the challenges facing the critically endangered New Zealand sea lion.
The practice of hot-iron branding New Zealand sea lions ended in controversy 13 years ago, but research has found it has not affected their survival.
About 2000 litres of rubbish, including couches and plastic bottle ''bongs'', have been found along Dunedin's coastline and waterways.
A response to a request for more information on the changes made to Otago's conservation management strategy has been labelled as ''absolutely unacceptable'' by Otago Conservation Board member Susan Stevens.
It will be at least a week before it is known if the first kakapo chick to hatch since 2011 will survive.
The Taieri and other flood-prone catchments are at risk by not having an effective rain warning system, Dunedin City councillor and Middlemarch farmer Kate Wilson says.
Join a club, try a new sport or explore the city by bus and remember not to do anything you would not do at home.
Flowers are blooming and the birds are singing as Otago Peninsula's flora and fauna regenerates without significant predation by possums.
A Japanese whaling vessel that reportedly tailed an anti-whaling ship close to Otago's coastline - inside New Zealand's exclusive economic zone- did so against the ''strong wishes'' of the New Zealand Government.
