The Dunedin City Council’s staff-only social club has been allowed to keep selling alcohol despite its drink prices being deemed "at the low end" by its own licensing committee.

The long-awaited summer in the South is taking its time arriving, especially in Dunedin, where cloud and a lack of sunshine marked the peak holiday period.

What looks like a high-end, extremely expensive bottle of vino, is actually a historic 150-year-old whisky decanter.

He was no longer Dunedin’s mayor, but Jules Radich was poised to maintain some influence in shaping the city’s future.