From left, event convener Linley Carter, winner Joel Hasselman and Frankton brigade senior station officer Paul Halstead, whose brigade was the fundraising tournament’s main beneficiary. PHOTO: ODT FILESConsidering last Sunday’s 36th Altrusa International Queenstown Charity Golf Tournament mostly fundraised for the Frankton volunteer fire brigade, there couldn’t have been a more fitting winner. The overall winner, at Queenstown Golf Club’s Kelvin Heights course, was Frankton Golf Centre teaching pro Joel Hasselman, who’s hugely appreciative of the brigade’s efforts in putting out the fire which gutted its pro shop last month. Over the years the Altrusa tournament’s raised $200,000-plus for many local causes. Attracting a field of almost 100 players in challenging weather, Sunday’s tournament raised at least $12,000 for the brigade, and also a donation to junior golf’s Futures Whakatipu programme.

from left, John Sanders, Kate Hamilton, and Bruce Patton. Sanders, 71, has been involved on and off for about 50 years and latterly provides about half of the sheep on display every year. He says his life membership’s also a credit to his late wife Mary-Liz Ford-Sanders whose experience in A&P shows stretched back to her days in Australia where she was a life member in Ballarat. He also donated a trophy in the wool tent in memory of his wife this year. "Now we’ve got to find people to step into that sheep role, otherwise we’ll lose that and it will be a devastating situation."

The new luxury Queenstown spa, 'The Bathhouse'. PHOTO: ODT FILESThe Aussie company behind a new luxury Queenstown spa called The Bathhouse appears to be defying a judge’s ruling to slightly rejig its name to avoid possible confusion with a local restaurant of the same name. Parties behind the latter sought a High Court ruling to get the Aussies to rename their spa to avoid misleading consumers. In her ruling last month, Justice Melanie Harland instead allowed them to keep the bathhouse name as long as they immediately changed the trading and marketing name to ‘The Bathhouse Spa Queenstown’. To be fair, the Aussies changed their name on Facebook but as of this week the signs on their Brecon St premises read only ‘Bathhouse’ or ‘The Bathhouse’.

Wakatipu Plunket’s Tanya Moffat is pictured with local Mitre 10 Mega GM Paul Jackson and the playhouse built by Women’s Shed which is being donated by Mitre 10 to Plunket’s Arrowtown facility. PHOTO: TRACEY ROXBURGHCountless Whakatipu children for years to come will benefit from a special gift from the Whakatipu’s Mitre 10 Mega. Late last year, the Brookes Rd store marked their 10th birthday with a community celebration, at which Women’s Shed Queenstown founder Alex van Dam and Hannah Covington built a playhouse from materials supplied by Mitre 10. The store then called for nominations from the community to find a home for the playhouse, which has been built to last. "They do such amazing work in the community, and lots of kids will get to use it."

PHOTO: ODT FILESPoor communication and "mixed messaging" is behind Queenstown Medical Centre’s (QMC) decision to dump beleaguered patient portal provider Manage My Health (MMH), CEO Ashley Light says. Meanwhile, QMC is sharing all the information it receives on the unfolding situation on its website. Patients can check whether their personal data has been affected by logging into the MMH app or website, he says. "We’re leaving it up to patients to make their own decision on that, we can’t do that on their behalf." Live medical records, GP notes, specialist referral documents, prescriptions, secure messaging and appointment systems were not accessed or affected, the company says.

Photo: RNZForensic experts are spending a second day examining a house in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga where a man was shot. Police were called to the property on Arthur Street late on Friday morning following reports that several people had arrived at a house and fired shots. Detective Senior Sergeant Matt Bunce said a man was in a critical condition in hospital. Det Snr Sgt Bunce told The New Zealand Herald investigators were urgently working to identify and locate those involved. “Several people arrived at a residential address and discharged firearms at the front of the house, and the victim has been struck as a result of this,” Bunce told the Herald.

The third youngest finalist in the modern history of the men's ASB Classic wants to put his name alongside the greats. Czech 20-year-old Jakub Mensik will face seventh-seed Sebastian Baez in the final from 2pm. NZ Herald Sports Journalist Michael Burgess joined D’Arcy to preview the finals. LISTEN ABOVE

Five million people visit the Sistine Chapel each year to marvel at Michelangelo’s frescoes, which cover every inch of plaster on the ceiling. "The Last Judgment" fresco, reproduced here, fills the entire western wall behind the Sistine Chapel altar. For people from all different backgrounds, it speaks to them, too.”Visitors to the Sistine Chapel crane their necks to admire the ceiling, more than 20m above them. It’s very clearly around a woman.”"David and Goliath", one of the corner scenes in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes. “For me, the Sistine Chapel asks a lot of questions but it also answers them.

“I thought, ‘this is pretty special’.”The $5 note signed by Sir Edmund Hillary and given to Winston Peters by Hillary's grandson, Alexander. Winston Peters in the 2023 advertisement. The Miami Dolphins ball given to Winston Peters by Marco Rubio. He also has one from China and one from Mexico, among the nine horse gifts in the past two years. The statue given to Winston Peters by the Saudi Arabian government after he attended the Saudi Cup in Riyadh.

“It’s obvious [the] Government and Police are panicking that big numbers of Kiwis will be turning out to cross the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Sat 31st January. The decision will be made then.”Tamaki claimed the decision not to allow what he described as a peaceful protest over the Harbour Bridge was a “desperate panic reaction” from the Police. He also referred to “the Muslim police commander and Indian police commander in charge.”Destiny Church's Brian Tamaki. The January 31 protest has been heavily promoted on social media platforms, including Facebook, by Tamaki and those involved with the True Patriots of NZ Facebook page. Tamaki has been telling followers that this was their chance to protest about immigration.

The now abandoned control room for the Rangipō Power Station, near Tūrangi. The station is now controlled remotely by Genesis Energy's Tokaanu Power Station. A tunnel through Mount Tihia takes water from Rotoaira to the 240 MW Tokaanu Power Station, the 200m drop ensuring it hits the station’s four turbines with force. “We have a number of different iwi and hapū around the power scheme, which is geographically quite widespread, so we cover different territories. “If the plates fall down, then it takes a while to get them back up and running, but it’s not that easy.”Genesis Energy's Tokaanu Power Scheme.

He said he’s had some success luring officers north but wanted “20 plus” extra staff. He acknowledged there were serious issues with crime in the mid and Far North but said such challenges present a more stimulating and diverse day job. You’re not a one-trick pony.”Senior Sergeant Clem Armstrong wants police recruits on South Island waitlists to come north. Senior Sergeant Clem Armstrong (inset) wants to lure waitlisted recruits in the South Island to jobs in the Far North where he says young officers can fast-track their careers. “Usually, those negative comments come from people that aren’t from this town, and they don’t know anything about our town.

Disinformation researcher, Byron Clark says disinformation is being spread using deepfake AI images of the Bondi terror attacks. The “Bush Legend”, as his TikTok and Meta account usernames describe him as, have amassed more than 211,000 followers and mainly discuss native Australian animals and facts about them. The videos show him in khaki outfits, or sometimes in ochre, often accompanied with yidaki (didgeridoo) music. However, none of the videos are real and, when the Herald checked the description of the pages, it was stated by the account it used “AI-generated visuals to share wildlife stories“. Followers have left comments on the videos admiring how he handles the animals while speaking to the camera and it is unclear how many of the viewers know that Bush Legend isn’t a real person.

A leaked State Department memo said the Government is targeting nationalities more likely to require public assistance while living in the US. They are there without authority and must be dealt with according to the law of the United States,” Rabuka said. Other Pacific countries include Samoa at 63.4%, Federated States of Micronesia at 58.1%, Tonga at 54.4%, and Fiji at 40.8%. All the same, it’s not as though the US isn’t guilty of sweeping up Pacific states on to migrant ban lists that ought not be there. Take Tuvalu for instance: in July it was included on a list of countries where visa bans were being strongly considered... by accident.

Last night I had the beautiful privilege of going to a remarkable concert at Vector Arena in Auckland. My beautiful wife and I drove in from Dairy Flat with only minor delays, near the port, due to the ASB Classic Tennis – which was clearly pumping. Vector Arena was almost sold out for the great David Byrne of Talking Heads – and solo career – fame. When we left we had choices of how we drove back to beautiful Dairy Flat and the traffic management was superb. Auckland may just be on the way … and just wait until the CRL opens.