OPINION: The Totaranui road is unlikely to rate highly by the residents of Nelson and Tasman, either in terms of priority for funding or actual usage, but its overall importance cannot be denied. It has been estimated that some 30,000 tourists a year, from home and abroad, used the only land access from Golden Bay to Totaranui campground at the northern end of the famed Abel Tasman National Park.

OPINION: Anger. Gut-wrenching grief. The relentless torture of "why".

RICHARD BUTLER - © Fairfax NZ News

Getting my first bike as a 7-year-old in Nelson in the 1970s meant independence.

OPINION: All things being equal, it is hard to argue with the breast-is-best philosophy in feeding babies, as promoted so strongly by Plunket, La Leche and the Health Ministry.

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OPINION: Twenty years is a long time to spend in a New Zealand jail.

OPINION: It should not surprise that controversial lobby group Family First is using the report of an academic whose credentials have been strongly questioned to underscore its belief that day care is detrimental to children.

OPINION: When does a good time become bad? When 4000 young New Zealanders go on a rowdy Waitangi Day pub crawl through central London, according to expatriate travel agent Dylan Clements, who has filed a complaint with the New Zealand High Commissioner.

SIR GEOFFREY PALMER - © Fairfax NZ News

There is a great deal of bad news in the world and we read about it all the time. We have had bad news in New Zealand lately with earthquakes, floods, slips and stickered homes.

OPINION: Amid the predictable Waitangi Weekend warm fuzzies from Labour leader David Shearer – the "celebrate the positive", "be proud to be a Kiwi" rhetoric – one small aside resonates. And not in a good way.

OPINION: In the war of the roads – cyclists versus cars – it often seems that the first rule of engagement is, might is right.

OPINION: New Zealand is well used to Waitangi Day being politically charged.

OPINION: Was God responsible for the heavy rain in mid-December that caused so much havoc in Nelson?

The region's mayors give their personal views on the Local Government Commission's proposal to create the Nelson Tasman District Council.

OPINION: First, it's a good decision to name the driveway to the Saxton Field Athletics Track "Harold Nelson Way".

OPINION: If the region's voters employ the same level of commonsense and diligence to April's poll on amalgamation that they, hopefully, apply to their own affairs, then the Nelson Tasman District Council will be formed before the end of the year.

Kerry Marshall can call on vast experience in a range of areas as he attempts to get the Christchurch City Council functioning smoothly. He has been mayor in both Tasman and Nelson, was president of Local Government New Zealand for three years and had four years on the Local Government Commission.

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Presumably the organisers of the still popular – if less so compared with previous years – Brightwater Wine and Food Festival will spend time around the whiteboard in planning the event's future. They drew some flak this year for increasing the ticket prices to $40, or $50 on the day. This was double last year's prices.

OPINION: The first test of the sale of the 16 Crafar farms to a Chinese-owned company is whether the deal is lawful.

OPINION: School boards everywhere should listen and learn from the story of Nelson College headmaster Gary O'Shea.

OPINION: It is fitting that Nick Smith used his first speech as local government minister to focus on council spending.

OPINION: So. Nick Smith is going to sort out New Zealand's dog problem. Good luck to him.

OPINION: It is said, with good reason, that we should not speak ill of the dead. To begin with, they cannot defend themselves (without the dubious assistance of intermediaries such as the Ouija board or neighbourhood clairvoyant).

OPINION: The numbers, the implications, the central character and his lifestyle, the courtroom theatrics – everything about the internet piracy story which broke at the weekend was mega-sized, and there is much yet to come.

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OPINION: What kind of person rips off their own grandmother?

OPINION: This was always going to be an uncertain year for the region's local bodies, with the crunch point in the amalgamation process nearing.

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OPINION: The pragmatism driving the Crusaders board as it seeks maximum returns this season is understandable.

The comparisons with the Titanic are inevitable. Both it and the Costa Concordia were huge, state-of-the-art pleasure ships and regarded as unsinkable, even if it is not done to tempt fate and attach that description to any vessel these days. However, there are significant differences.

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OPINION: Hinekawa Topia is dead at two months, the result of "non-accidental injuries" according to police. While the facts of the baby girl's death are still to emerge, it has sparked another bout of speculation and hand-wringing, the sort which rolls around about 10 times a year (the rate at which New Zealand children die from abuse).

It is not just the unfortunate cyclist who had a scrape with a truck on Rocks Rd at the weekend who should be thanking her lucky stars that the incident wasn't far worse.

OPINION: A month on from last month's devastating deluge and a clear picture of the full extent of the damage has yet to emerge.