It's that time of year again when we're compelled to buy a sentimental card for our loved ones and go out for a set-menu meal - or wallow in our singledom.

The New Zealand pinot noir movement is gathering pace and the great and good of the wine world jetted in from Singapore, Stockholm and San Francisco last week to experience Central Otago's take on the grape.

Live At the Islands draws some big music names to support conservation work.

Liquor bans are in place and police numbers are being boosted in many of the traditional New Year's Eve hot spots.

Environmental artist Martin Hill says he tends to get more pleasure from personal experiences than from tangible objects.

Allowing brothels to operate near playgrounds, schools or churches in central Otago resort towns is "unacceptable", a lobby group says.

A helicopter pilot was sending and receiving text messages in the minutes prior to being killed in a crash, a report says.

A jetboat driver has been fined and ordered to pay reparation to the family of a British tourist killed in a river boat crash in December 2008.

Queenstown schools are closed with drivers urged to take extreme care on central South Island roads after heavy snow fell in the area, with more expected.

A teenager who feared for the safety of his sister and her friend took his drink-driving mother's keys and a bottle of gin, then called police.