The World Cup final appears to have cost some football fans a day's skiing.

Wanaka traders threw open their doors this Easter after being secretly told there would be no Labour inspectors around to catch them, it's been reported.

A Wanaka police officer was left bloodied and bruised after being attacked inside his patrol car yesterday - six years after being seriously injured in a similar drink-drive stop.

A helicopter broke apart in midair near Wanaka after the rotors struck the tail during turbulence, killing the trainee pilot and instructor, a crash investigation has found.

One of the victims of a 'highly trusted' farm manager jailed for stealing $335k of stock and farm items says he couldn't have acted alone.

Glad Cross' golf game started out well below par on Tuesday, but the 91-year-old Wanaka woman finished it on a high after scoring her fifth hole-in-one.

By this time next year, the first buildings could be going up in Wanaka's single-biggest commercial and residential development.

Police are interviewing the driver of a white four wheel drive in their inquiry into the death of Rutger Telford Hale.

A rural road near Wanaka is being searched for a mystery object which smashed through a car windscreen this morning, killing the driver.

A pair of US tourists had to be rescued by a police search and rescue team after becoming stranded on the banks of the Haast River yesterday afternoon.

Elisabeth Easther pays our winter wonderland a visit.

The body of a local politician has been found in Lake Wanaka, after his family raised the alarm when he failed to return from a fly-fishing trip at the Makarora River mouth.

Danielle Wright experiences cross-country skiing at Wanaka.

A pest control programme on land near Lake Wanaka has eradicated almost 700 pests - including a cat compared in size to a panther - in little more than a year.

A couple have appeared in court after their child was removed from school last April and apparently didn't return for the rest of the year.

Predicted heavy rain from tomorrow is raising concerns about possible flooding of lakes Wakatipu and Wanaka.

Snow stopped tourists in their tracks on the Crown Range between Wanaka and Queenstown yesterday morning.

On a clear, calm day, there is just one place 85-year-old Wanaka woman Pat Stuart wants to be - tearing around the lake behind a jet boat on a single water ski.

It was a less than festive Christmas for some yesterday, as many younger family members itched and scratched their way through the celebrations.

The 38-year-old Italian man who died in a skydiving accident while filming a tandem jump in Wanaka yesterday has been named.

An Italian man is dead after his parachute failed to open on a skydiving flight and he crashed to his death in front of a horrified Wanaka man.

A skydiver has been killed near Wanaka today after falling to his death near the town's airport and landing in a local golf course.

Herbicide leaked from spilled containers after a heavy truck carrying freight crashed on State Highway 8 near Tarras, near Wanaka, early yesterday.

An Australian tramper with a serious lower leg injury was lifted off the Motatapu Track near Wanaka late on Tuesday afternoon.

A Wanaka accountant has been ordered to pay more than $26,000 after he was appointed receiver of a failed winemaker despite an obvious conflict of interest.