Otago Daily Times News Feed

Virgin flight VA9552, bound for Brisbane, takes off from Queenstown Airport just after 5pm on Saturday with a small number of Australian citizens on board. It will be the last international flight from Queenstown for at least three months.PHOTO: TRACEY ROXBURGH A single passenger came through Queenstown Airport’s arrival doors at 4.35pm on Saturday, under police escort, and walked to a waiting car.

A local fire chief is calling on families to be more vigilant following a blaze that injured three people and completely destroyed a tent home in Hawea last week.

PHOTO: GUS PATTERSON Residents of Walbrook Cres in Oamaru took their chairs and headed out to their front lawns for a"happy hour" on Saturday.

Dunstan Hospital. Photo: ODT files Dunstan Hospital has clarified its role regarding three cases of Covid-19 in Central Otago, of which one patient was transferred to Dunedin Hospital on Friday.

Marty Gray A police officer who pepper-sprayed a Balclutha man who was on the way to feed his horses has been found to be at fault.

A fire at a flat in Waikaka has left three people with only the clothes they were wearing and with limited ways of replacing their belongings.

PHOTO: CHRISTINE O’CONNOR The lockdown message seems not to be getting through to some people.

Health Minister David Clark works from his Dunedin home during the Covid-19 lockdown. Photo: Supplied Almost every New Zealander is now living inside their bubble, and Health Minister David Clark is no exception.

Sick of your own company yet? Well how about sharing some of your daily lockdown activities with our Otago Daily Times readers.

Rob Walter A lot of promising cricketing careers began in the hallway or the backyard.

University of Otago Oval. Photo: Christine O'Connor Crucial work needed to upgrade the University of Otago Oval has been put on hold.

MetService has halted construction of its $2.8million weather radar in Otago as a result of Covid-19 and the country going into lockdown.

Clapping for essential workers while practising social distancing, standing 2m apart, are Waverley neighbours (from left) Renna Idrus, Peiter Du Plessis, Jacqui Whibley, Pauline Hockney, Jeanette Robinson-Tromop, Craig Whibley, Sophie Whibley, Eva Speizer, Cam Fraser (15), Tracey Fraser and Jim Mann. PHOTO: CHRISTINE O’CONNOR A group of Waverley residents came together to show their appreciation for essential workers — through clapping.

Reading from the Bible are the Vai family (from left) Lute, Akolotu, Tevita and Lea Vai. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Oamaru's Pasifika community has had to be creative to celebrate traditional day of church and family amid the Covid-19 lockdown yesterday.

Toothfish stands in front of a completed composition on a disused George St shop window. Photos: Peter McIntosh The icons of a politically charged environmental spirituality are taking to the street, writes Tom McKinlay.

Photo: Getty Images Leaving fossil fuels unburned remains the first urgent priority of climate action, but protecting and restoring natural ecosystems will also be critical, according to a recent review of the scientific literature. Lead author on that review, climate scientist Dr Mike Morecroft, of Natural England,  explains to Maureen Howard what nature-based solutions have to offer.

Wakatipu Beech Seedling Project manager Hilary Lennox, of Ahika Consulting Ltd, on site above the lake. Photo: Supplied As our climate and ecological crises deepen, attention has been turning to viable and efficient ways to restore natural ecosystems. Maureen Howard finds out what is being learned by volunteers restoring native beech forest to the slopes of the Wakatipu Basin.

Assoc Prof David Campbell, of the University of Waikato, in the field researching peatlands. Photo: Supplied When it comes to sequestering carbon, New Zealand’s peatlands  are champions. Maureen Howard finds out why.

Prof Michael Jack is working with schools to replace their old coal-fired boilers. Photo: Peter McIntosh We still burn a lot of coal to ward off the cold and to fuel industry, despite the price in carbon emissions. But as Maureen Howard reveals, there’s a cleaner, plentiful alternative ready and waiting in the wings.

Kale and white miso pesto. Photos: Linda Robertson Autumn is harvest time, and what better way to celebrate the abundance of our fertile earth, than through sharing meals, savouring natural flavours and textures of locally grown vegetables, herbs, fruit and nuts? Hagar Ozri provides some suggestions.