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.

Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Facebook

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.

Sarah says that the woman disclosed that she’d been having an affair with her husband and provided screenshots of messages between them as proof. One of many friend requests on social media that Sarah received over the years. Following the discovery of the affair, Sarah left her husband and unsuccessfully applied for a restraining order against the woman. The undertaking also meant the woman could not make social media accounts in the name of the victim or her children. Sarah told NZME after the sentencing that as a victim, it felt like a small win.

Photos: ReutersNovak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz meet in Sunday's Australian Open final with history in the balance, as the Serbian great chases a record 25th Grand Slam title and the Spanish dynamo bids to become the youngest man to win all four majors. The 22-year-old Spaniard has had Melbourne on his mind since winning his second US Open title last year. He would also become the first men's player under 23 to win seven Grand Slam titles, a tally that eluded Djokovic until he was 27. While Djokovic knocked Alcaraz out of last year's Australian Open quarter-finals, he was well-beaten the last time they faced on a Grand Slam hardcourt, losing 6-4 7-6(4) 6-2 in the US Open semis. With 18 fewer Grand Slam titles than Djokovic, he should be more hungry than the Serb.

‘Heavily researched’: Spike Wademan by his painting The Photographer — based on an 1888 photo by American Martha Harvey of trawlers in Gloucester Harbour, Massachusetts — which featured in an international marine art exhibition near Boston in 2011Thirty paintings by renowned Queenstown-based marine and aviation artist Spike Wademan feature in an exhibition opening next Thursday at Arrowtown’s Lakes District Museum. Wallace says her dad also painted a lot of historic American ships after befriending an American from Boston who holidayed here. Queenstown landscapes also inspired a lot of Wademan’s art, and over his career he was frequently commissioned to produce artworks for collectors across the globe. ‘‘Each of Spike’s works is heavily researched and captures a moment in time, vividly and skilfully brought to life by the artist’s hand,’’ Wallace says. All works at the Arrowtown exhibition — running from next Thursday, 5.30pm, till March 1 — will be for sale.

You are not permitted to download, save or email this image. Visit image gallery to purchase the image.

Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina (left) poses with the trophy after winning her women's singles final against Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka. Photo: ReutersElena Rybakina delivered a thunderous display to dismantle firm favourite Aryna Sabalenka and win a maiden Australian Open title on Saturday, turning the tables on the world number one in their Melbourne Park final rematch from three years ago. "It's an incredible achievement," said the 26-year-old, who will rise to number three in the world rankings on Monday behind Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek. Only a year ago at Melbourne Park, Rybakina was defending her coach Stefano Vukov, who had a provisional ban lifted by the WTA in August following an investigation into a potential breach of its code of conduct. Without you it wouldn't be possible," said Rybakina, a player transformed since the tail end of last season with 14 victories from her last 15 matches.

The catastrophic slip from Mauao onto Beachlands holiday park killed six campers and became the focus of the media coverage for days. Online posts that claimed the removal of non-native trees for protection of culturally significant sites contributed to the landslide were widely shared. News media clear up the pictureUnder the headline Did tree removal really trigger the Mount Maunganui landslide? Mauao may have been a disaster waiting to be triggered by extreme weather, but not solely for the reasons that some non-experts claimed online. "I had no idea until this week," Newstalk ZB host Jack Tame said on air last Monday.