Otago

A Dunedin motorist did not take too kindly to a cyclist squirting him with water after teaching him a lesson about his driving.

A young migrant who worked long hours for free at a Central Otago hospitality business says she felt "like a prisoner" during her nine months in the job.

Firefighters have now contained a four-hectare grass and scrub fire near Lake Benmore in the Upper Waitaki area of Otago.

A penguin is getting fattened up at its new temporary home after travelling thousands of kilometres to Aotearoa.

The wastewater entered the natural swamp after spilling over the top of an oxidation pond at the Shotover Wastewater Treatment Plant on Monday.

A dad was attacked by a man from another car who objected to his baby being out late at night.

An Oamaru service station did not give a young penguin an icy reception after it waddled into the store.

Crews are urgently trying to fix an overflow of partially treated wastewater that has entered a Queenstown swamp.

A man who went missing in the Otago town of Middlemarch has been found safe and well, police say.

Adventurous young kororā are biting off more than they can chew on their quest to reach the ocean.

Cooler temperatures and rain are on the way for the South Island and the lower North Island, bringing some respite from the summer heat.

There is "extreme concern" about the risk of fires on the east coast of the South Island this weekend, Fire and Emergency says.

Otago and Waitaki residents are being urged to defend their properties against increasing fire risk.

Freshwater anglers are being asked to keep an eye out for pest species after a grass carp was caught in an Otago lake.

Four-wheel-drive enthusiasts are being urged to stick to formed roads and take care when driving after several popular historic Queenstown areas were damaged.

About 20 people were involved in the harrowing rescue which saw a young Dunedin boy fighting for his life.

A gull found stuck in a George St grate may have exposed a design flaw in Dunedin's infrastructure.

Dunedin residents are being asked to keep their dogs on leads and drive carefully near a golf course where two sea lions' pups were recently born.

He was 32-year-old Codey Jervis, a New Zealander who was living in London.

Invercargill's mayor is recovering in an intensive care unit after undergoing heart surgery in Dunedin Hospital this week.