After almost 70 years in one family’s ownership, a central Queenstown lakefront property, ripe for an architectural masterpiece to be built on it, is up for auction - on-site - at noon today.

The Invercargill City Council has given its first look at how much last month’s devastating storm cost the organisation, and it is not cheap.

As a nitrate tap-water testing roadshow rolled into Gore this week, so did a clash over credibility.

Police pepper-sprayed a couple as violence erupted during an arrest outside an Oamaru government office this morning.

Fleeing police turned into a family affair when a man took his mother and two siblings on a high-speed drive past Oamaru before dumping the vehicle and making the brood continue on foot.

Police are seeking witnesses to a double-fatal crash near Timaru, and another separate crash which occurred nearby.