PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSONThe Green Party is launching an ambitious and potentially divisive campaign to capture the Dunedin seat from Labour. "For the Dunedin campaign, we’re doing something that we’ve not done before, which is asking for the candidate vote as well as the party vote," Mr Hernandez said. "We do see Dunedin as a two-horse race between Labour and the Greens." Mr Hernandez came third in the electorate race but the Greens ran a strong second on party votes — 11,449, to Labour’s 13,160. Mr Willis polled 3898 personal votes in Taieri in 2023, when running a purely party vote candidate.

Zack Scoular leads the New Zealand Grand Prix at Highlands yesterday. PHOTO: BRUCE JENKINSZack Scoular produced the finest drive of his career — in his last single-seater race — to win the 70th New Zealand Grand Prix at Highlands Motorsport Park yesterday. After a challenging 2025 on and off the track, NZ Grand Prix glory was the best way for 18-year-old Scoular to start the year and a new chapter in his motor racing career. "To win the New Zealand Grand Prix... what can I say? Scoular set the fastest lap of the race on lap 21, increased his lead to over 1sec and never looked back.

Black Caps batter Finn Allen scores a half-century against India in the fifth and final T20 cricket international in Thiruvanantha-puram. Kishan clobbered 10 sixes in an incendiary 103 off 43 balls to anchor India’s imposing 271 for five at the Greenfield International Stadium. Ish Sodhi bore the brunt in the 12th over, when Kishan lashed four fours and two sixes in a seven-ball over that cost 29 runs. Black Caps captain Mitchell Santner had a hint of asmile when asked what the tourists could have done to stopped the relentless Indian batters. While the series was lost, the Black Caps gained valuable preparation for the T20 World Cup, he said.

Mr Campbell is now calling on Southlanders to take part in a survey on air travel, as part of a push for improved air services. The most common issues raised by people commenting were related to the cost of domestic air travel and the need to restore the direct flight to Wellington. "No surprises there, but the more detailed data from the survey will be really important to develop a strategy," he said. Chief executive Chami Abeysinghe said the survey would provide evidence-based understanding of Southlanders’ air travel needs. Early feedback from the survey showed the loss of direct Wellington services and limited flight timings was increasing travel time, cost and complexity.

Northern Irish family (from left) Lynsey, Elizabeth and John Glover competed in the pentathlon at the Masters Games in Dunedin at the weekend. "But if I’m honest, my main reason was to come and do this [the Masters Games]. The Masters Games had exceeded all expectations, she said. It was a busy opening weekend for the Masters Games with the opening ceremony getting under way at the Edgar Centre on Saturday night. Brazilian jujitsu makes its debut at the Masters Games today, while curling, pickleball, darts, bowls and petanque get under way.

A public workshop will be held from noon on Wednesday — before a Cromwell Community Board meeting. All Central Otago residents were urged to help come up with a name for the nearly completed building, which is due to open in July, at the Central Otago District Council meeting in December. The Cromwell Community Board had recommended the $45 million venue have dual names — one English and a gifted te reo Māori one, Central Otago district councillor Sarah Browne said at the December meeting. Deputy mayor Tracy Paterson said, at the time, the decision was for the whole district, "not just a decision for Cromwell". However, all Central Otago ratepayers would pay for operating expenses because of the council’s "districtisation" policy of spreading its outlay across the whole district.

The thousands gathered to compete in the two-yearly New Zealand Masters Games in Dunedin will be hoping the weather smiles upon them over the next week. The Games were first held in Dunedin in 1992, and this year is the 37th time they have been held. Sadly, Dunedin missed out on the Games planned for 2022 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2024 Games made a $193,350 loss, most of which was written off by the Dunedin City Council. Changes for this year, including moving the Games hub to the Edgar Centre, have been designed to help the bottom line, but hopefully without losing any of the atmosphere. The Edgar Centre will be the hub for this year's Masters Games.

Hundreds of athletes flocked to Dunedin for the opening weekend of the Masters Games. The Games are tipped to attract more than 3500 athletes — including 60% from outside of Dunedin — competing in more than 60 sports across the next week. Athletics, ice skating, volleyball, tennis, table tennis, hockey, paddlesports, softball, squash, diving, bowls and more were the big drawcards for the opening weekend. The Games were marked with the opening ceremony at the hub at the Edgar Centre on Saturday night, followed by entertainment from Dunedin band Dubious Groove. Gregor Richardson snapped some of the action.

The latest round of the Dunedin premier club competition on Saturday was all about the bowlers. The Swamp Rats might not have immediately been confident their decision to insert CDK was the right one. Otago wicketkeeper-batter Max Chu got the ball rolling for the Hounds with 20 off 16 balls, and Jamal Todd bashed 41 off 40. CDK were looking reasonably set at 92 for three, but when Todd fell to Meade, the collapse began. Albion 102 beat Taieri 58 by 44 runsAlbion kept their Bing Harris Shield hopes humming with a convincing win in a low-scoring game at Tonga Park.

Sudden slowdownThe decision stated CVC operated several vehicle compliance sites in Canterbury and took over an existing business operating from a site in Wigram, Christchurch, where Darrell was already employed. Shareholder and director, Florin Orlandea, discussed this with Darrell, and mentioned the possibility of redundancies or taking time off work without pay. Darrell offered a resolution and said she would continue working at the Wigram site until her grievance was resolved. They said there was no work at the Wigram site and the company was not prepared to pay Darrell “to do nothing”. She could either take time off without pay, work from an alternative site or be made redundant, the ERA said.

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Controversy swirls around Boxing New Zealand with several top boxers pulling out of Commonwealth Games contention while an investigation into the organisation and its head coach Billy Meehan continues. At just 19, Tasmyn Benny made history in 2018 as the first female boxer to win a Commonwealth Games medal. National Boxing New Zealand coach and councillor Billy Meehan. (Source: Supplied)She went on to lose, and no New Zealand boxers ended up qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games. However, that boxer’s coach says they are too afraid to speak out on the issue.

I soon realised the effect was real but the alarm was overdone, that feedback effects were exaggerated in the models. The activists who took over the climate debate, often with minimal understanding of climate science, competed for attention by painting ever more catastrophic pictures of future greenhouse warming. They altered the name to ‘climate change’ so they could blame it for blizzards as well as heatwaves. Then they inflated the language to ‘climate emergency’ and ‘climate crisis’, even as projections of future warming came down. ‘A top climate scientist is warning climate change will wipe out humanity unless we stop using fossil fuels over the next five years,’ tweeted Greta Thunberg in 2018.

The luxury Fiordland Lodge near Te Anau. Photo: SuppliedA large number of firefighters have worked through the night to contain a fire which broke out at a luxury lodge on the outskirts of Te Anau. Fenz assistant commander Nic McQuillan said they had contained the fire to one wing of Fiordland Lodge, but work was continuing to suppress a flare-up and monitor hotspots this morning. Relief crews were en route from Winton, Otautau and Invercargill to replace the personnel who have been working on the fire overnight. Fiordland Lodge has 10 suites, a restaurant and bar and has hosted numerous celebrities, including Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, Virat Kohli and Peter Jackson.

Ishan Kishan smashed a 42-ball hundred as India showcased their batting firepower ahead of next month's Twenty20 World Cup, beating New Zealand by 46 runs in Thiruvananthapuram to seal a 4-1 series win. Kishan clobbered 10 sixes in an incendiary 103 off 43 balls to anchor India's imposing 271-5 at the Greenfield International Stadium. After playing second fiddle to Kishan for much of their rapid 137-run stand off 58 balls, India captain Suryakumar Yadav (63) exhibited his own power-hitting prowess by smashing three sixes in a Jacob Duffy over. New Zealand lost opener Tim Seifert cheaply but Allen and Rachin Ravindra (30) kept them in the hunt with a century stand before their chase was derailed. After spinner Axar Patel (3-33) removed Allen and Glenn Phillips, seamer Arshdeep demolished the New Zealand middle order to claim his maiden five-wicket haul in T20 internationals.