Two of New Zealand's rarest birds have just got a very wealthy support crew. The kākāpō and the Chatham Island tāiko have been named in the Phoenix Species Project — a $200 million global initiative backed by Re:wild, the Bezos Earth Fund, Leonardo DiCaprio, and a handful of

Southland District Council is spending its $1 million Milford Sound windfall on public toilets. Council agreed at its meeting on Wednesday to direct the money — received from selling its two percent shareholding in Milford Sound Tourism Limited — toward renewing and upgrading public toilets along the main tourist route through Southland

Parts of Southland's roading network are approaching a "tipping point", and the district mayor has put that warning in writing to the country's transport agency. Southand District Mayor Rob Scott has written a pointed letter to NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) chair Simon Bridges, questioning

Southland District Council will submit a merger proposal for local government reform — even though most of the people it asked said not to. Councillors voted on Wednesday to back a Head Start proposal for two councils to govern the region: a Southland-Gore unitary council and an Invercargill unitary council. The

A new-look Southerner Express breezed into Invercargill railway station yesterday afternoon at the end of a two-day promotional run from Christchurch. Local dignitaries and invited guests saw the new layout for the first time last night during a return trip to Bluff. The revamped servicer operated on an existing timetable,

More than 30,000 New Zealanders with type 2 diabetes will get easier access to four blood sugar medicines from September 1, after Pharmac widened its funding criteria. The medicines — empagliflozin, empagliflozin with metformin, liraglutide and dulaglutide — will now be funded for anyone with type 2 diabetes whose blood sugar

Saturday belongs to the King of Pop — The Loney goes full Michael Jackson from 11pm with DJ Matt Murray on the decks and prizes for best dressed called at midnight sharp. Friday's got its own big draws: Joe Schmidt — the Wallabies coach and NZ Rugby legend — sits down

Southland councils have been scrambling to finalise their Head Start proposals before the August 9 deadline, with the Gore District hedging their bets across two. Invercargill City councillors voted today (August 6) to move ahead with their unitary authority model proposal for Southland, including Gore. But it wasn’t without