An American tourist found dead in a river near Wanaka yesterday had previously described her first tramping trip in a column published by Otago University’s student magazine Critic.

Allison "Ally" Willen was last seen on the Gillespie Pass track on April 25, Senior Sergeant Ben Butterfield said.

A fugitive who went on the run in Dunedin has been found after eluding police for much of the day.

A Central Otago boutique hotel with a conscience mixes pleasure with wellbeing, discovers Jesse Mulligan.

Police fear a missing University of Otago student could have been swept away in a flooded river during a tramp in Mt Aspiring National Park at the weekend.

Millbrook Resort plans to spend $50 million on a new golf and residential development.

The police prosecutor in charge of Edward Livingstone's second protection order breach has conceded mistakes might have been made in the way police handled the case.

A harrowing statement from Katharine Webb to police has revealed the horrific minutes leading up to her children's deaths.

Speed limits need not have been posted in Tapanui, West Otago, during filming of Walt Disney Pictures' "Pete's Dragon" on Saturday. Local residents came out to participate and watch the filming of "Pete's Dragon", taking place in Tapanui.

Otago Peninsula jewelled geckos smuggled to Germany are the first to return to New Zealand under strengthened rules to crack down on poaching.

A French tourist who backed her rental car over a cliff above Lake Wanaka early yesterday afternoon had a lucky escape from serious injury.

A Chinese tourist has admitted causing the death of Oamaru 5-year-old Ruby Jay Marris.

Nature's treasures keep drawing people south to the Teviot Valley, finds Elisabeth Easther.

A castle, gardens and penguins give the student town of Dunedin a more refined air, finds Sam Wicks.

Two men plucked from rough seas near Taieri Island yesterday after clinging for hours to an upturned kayak are ''lucky to be alive'', their rescuer says.

Craig Mitchell guided his stricken Cessna 182 to a crash landing in the soft sand of Tomahawk Beach to avoid beachgoers.

Louise Richardson's kids are so charmed by scenery and history they manage to put down their devices for a while.

It has been a "bad and very sad year already" for aviation in the south, the Civil Aviation Authority says.

The problem of wilding pines spreading through the McKenzie Basin and Upper Waitaki Valley is a hole into which government money has poured, and yet the trees persist.

Tributes are flowing in today for two of New Zealand's most experienced Cessna pilots who died in a horror crash that also claimed the lives of their two children.

Four bodies - believed to be from the same family - were last night recovered from the wreckage of a light aircraft near Wanaka.

Police have recovered four bodies from a light plane that crashed near Wanaka.

A scene examination has been completed at the Dunedin house where a 24-year-old was found dead yesterday, police say.

Women outweigh the men in Queenstown's first official marathon, says Rachel Grunwell.

A shopping company is being investigated over revelations some of its door-to-door staff regularly visit beneficiaries in a Dunedin boarding house.

The Dunedin City Council's group debt has dropped by more than $25 million on the back of stronger results by its companies, new figures show.

The company running Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium is promising a "completely different ball game" despite confirming another $1 million loss.