It was an early Christmas present for the Bennett family from Tarras. Superfine bales from Shirlmar Station took the three top spots at the recent final Melbourne wool sale for the year; two 12.5micron bales sold for $284kg greasy, or about $78,646 in total. Growers Bruce and Robyn Bennett, and…

A large tourism company is looking at Dunedin Railways’ operations as part of a major expansion bid. South Island-based Pounamu Tourism Group, which runs the Sir Edmund Hillary Rail & Coach Tours, said it was prepared to back Dunedin Railways, working closely with the Dunedin City Council on a potential…

Tauranga councillors have been flooded with emails opposing iwi representatives being appointed to council committees.The emails poured in ahead of Tuesday’s Tauranga City Council meeting where the decision was made.Councillor Hautapu Baker said the majority of the 2500 emails were from members of Hobson’s Pledge, a lobby group that opposed…

Military personnel have had their Christmas and New Year leave cancelled to fill gaps left by strikes, says a lobby group.Defence Minister Judith Collins last month invoked a rarely-used power to allow uniformed service men and women to fill in for striking civilian staff.But the Mission Homefront group has written…

The new Minister of Rail Winston Peters has poured scorn on ACT leader David Seymour’s hopes of privatising the Cook Strait ferry service, and says Seymour was “wrong” about the cost of the new project.On Wednesday, Seymour said indicative costings were “approximately half the at least $3 billion cost” of…

A “nameless legend” spread “delicious joy” during major delays at Auckland Airport yesterday – and now, the search is on to find out who that person was.Yesterday morning, an external tech issue led to huge queues for check-in at Auckland Airport’s international terminal. Congestion lasted for hours.Amid the disruption, a…

An estimated $5000 worth of playground equipment was stolen from Te Kōhanga Reo o Te Ngākau Mahana in Auckland’s Henderson over the weekend. In a statement, police said: “Who would steal a childcare centre’s playground?”Waitematā West Detective Sergeant Anna Freestone said the childcare centre was hit between 4.30pm on Friday…

ACT leader David Seymour is spearheading a review of the hairdressing industry to address what he views as “unnecessary” regulations. It is the third sector review to be led by the Minister for Regulation in the coalition government. The others are the agriculture industry and early childhood education. “Hairdressers and barbers……

A Woodend resident in the path of a proposed bypass is frustrated as property negotiations go sour.The Woodend Bypass will be a 9km extension to the Christchurch northern corridor, otherwise known as the Belfast to Pegasus Motorway.Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has confirmed the route will go from Pine Acres,…

Actress and singer Selena Gomez is engaged to music producer Benny Blanco.The 32-year-old Emilia Pérez star made the announcement in an Instagram post showing off her stunning engagement ring.”Forever begins now..,” the hitmaker captioned the post. Her new fiancé, 36, commented: “Hey wait… that’s my wife”.Selena Gomez shows off her…