Southland

Southland Charity Hospital now has a home after being given a tavern operated by the local licensing trust.

The producer of more than 20,000 tonnes of hazardous dross stored across Southland continues to refuse interviews or discuss a soured handshake deal.

Civil Defence authorities in Southland are relieved heavy rain has not hit flood-damaged parts of the Mataura River today.

One person has died in a crash in Southland early this morning.

Gore mayor Tracy Hicks is putting pressure on Rio Tinto to speed up the removal of its dangerous waste from a Southland site.

It's too early to count the cost of last week's flooding, but it'll be significant with the repairs to Milford Road alone costing millions of dollars to fix, authorities say.

Mataura residents stood up last night and asked central government to rid their community of hazardous waste from an aluminum smelter.

Heavy weather sweeping towards the South Island looks likely to skip Fiordland, which is still recovering from last week, but preparations are being made just in case.

Police targeting gangs in the deep south have made 17 arrests and recovered a "significant amount" of stolen goods since December.

Despite recent flooding, farmers are expected to flock to Southern Field Days starting at Waimumu near Gore today.

Four-wheel-drive access into Milford Sound is now available just over a week after heavy flooding cut off the only road in.

It's estimated hundreds of farms in Southland have been affected by recent flooding. It's expected to take months to recover and a food drive's being organised to help out.

Southland is still in a state of emergency as farmers say another shower is needed to help clean the muddy paddocks. The road to Milford Sound for tourists is unlikely to open any time soon. Audio

As Southland mayors meet to discuss the recovery effort after last week's flood, clean-up in water-soaked areas of Southland is getting under way in earnest this week.

Southland motorists face a challenging time on the roads in the coming week due to repairs from recent flooding and increased traffic.

A Southland woman is mobilising help to find pets lost in the Southland flooding.

Fiordland businesses are scrambling to keep tills ticking over as the road into Milford Sound remains completely blocked by slips, mayor Gary Tong says.

Southland Civil Defence is focusing its efforts this weekend on reaching people hit by the week's flooding, while the Minister of Conservation is expected to fly over affected areas of Fiordland…