Sally Rae

A community tree-planting day was held in Oamaru yesterday to beautify the area along the Oamaru Creek beside Chelmer St.

The 20th anniversary of the Oamaru Pacific Island Community Group will be marked today with a night of food, music and dance, Pacific Island style.

Kauru Hill sisters Renata (8) and Shannon (4) Burnett have been busy teaching their pet lambs to lead.

The Waitaki district now has 14 licensed regional tourism ambassadors. The group, presented with their ambassador badges yesterday by Waitaki Mayor Alex Familton, completed a new, six-week course at Aoraki Polytechnic's Oamaru campus.

Waitaki District Health Services, which runs Oamaru Hospital, has recorded an operating profit of $89,259 for the past financial year.

When Ann Willetts treads the boards at tomorrow's opening night production of Oklahoma! in Oamaru, she will cement her place in opera house history.

Pamela Gordon, niece of author Janet Frame, will speak at a function today to celebrate the opening of new display cabinets housing the Janet Frame and heritage collections at the Oamaru Public Library.

Oamaru mansion Pen-y-bryn Lodge is on the market.

Harry and Edna Hocking find it hard to believe they have been married for 65 years.

Oamaru Intermediate School deputy principal Deidre Senior is off to Malaysia next year as one of four New Zealand teachers selected to attend the Microsoft Asia Pacific Partners in Learning Innovative Teacher Conference.

It is likely tenders will be called in mid-January for the new Waitaki Valley School, with construction to start in March.

Percy the penguin is one high-flying bird.

A visit to the graves of their respective great-uncles at the Cassino War Cemetery in Italy was particularly poignant for Oamaru couple Tony and Jane Campbell - the graves, in a remarkable coincidence, lie side by side.

"There's a lot of fuss over these new potatoes," Totara grower Marty Quennell said with a smile, as he viewed the first of the season's crop yesterday.