It’s that time of year again when we look back on some of the highlights we have covered in Central Otago over the past 12 months. 

The thrills, the spills, and the stories that shook us and made us laugh (or cry).

We started off 2025 with warnings from local police about tourists driving on the wrong side of the road - and it wasn’t always because they forgot which side to be on.

We were told some drivers were nervous of our narrow highways (particularly the Kawarau Gorge). So they played it safe and drove down the middle instead.

Then there were three elderly people scammed out of their savings in just a matter of weeks. A 75-year old man lost $47,000 thinking it was SkyTV he was talking to.

Two other incidents of pensioners in their 90s were also swindled out of money - one for $8500 and another for $19,000 (one from a hoax bitcoin caller).

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) recently reported that $265 million had been lost to fraud over the past 12 months with fraudsters and scammers using innovative methods to prey on vulnerable people.

Alexandra’s IceInline had a small taste of summer in the middle of winter, when the rink melted in mid-June. The Central App photo.

The Roxburgh Pool had its first summer open to the public but there were issues with attracting lifeguards, and then reports of youths taking over the place - sneaking in after-hours and making a mess.

A month later and Roxburgh was making headlines again when its historic entertainment centre burned down. The cause was never known, and apparently the only thing salvaged from the wreck was some money in the till and chocolate bars.

Back in Alexandra, the local airport received a new micro-surface after almost 40 years, having not been upgraded since the 1980s.

Operators of turbo-prop aircraft had long been complaining about the chipseal getting sucked into their turbines.

Rabbits started digging up the Cromwell cemetery but nobody really knew what to do about it. Friends of Cromwell Cemetery applied for various grants for rabbit-proof fencing but got turned down twice. 

The Alexandra IceInline rink melted one day in the middle of June after heavy wind and rain - a phenomenon known as the ‘foehn effect.’ It froze again a few days later and the season continued.

Clyde Orchards achieved what was thought to be an NZ first with its specially designed ni-Van ‘home away from home’ for families that come every year to pick fruit.

The Naseby Night Sky was finally given its accreditation after many years, and then a month or two later the massive solar farm was approved.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Horticulture Minister Nicola Grigg popped into Suncrest Orchard in late November.  

The Central App turned 9 and we were picked amongst 12 media outlets in Australasia for Google AI training (no this is not written by a robot). There is a difference between AI Assist and AI Generation.

But getting ‘Gemini 3 Pro’ to sift through hundreds of pages of council documents and come up with three story ideas or angles is quite exciting.

I met the Prime Minister at the end of November and he jokingly asked me how the media was invited to a local orchard packhouse. It’s always about who you know in this world, right?

They were my most memorable moments of 2025. Now it’s time to head back to the lake for iceblocks, sausages (and hopefully no wasps at the Burton Creek picnic area).