Shania Twain will come on over for up to three months a year. The Canadian singing superstar has been given approval to buy two high-country stations at Wanaka for $21.4 million. The stations, Motatapu and Mt Soho, total 24,700ha and the sale conditions include opening up public access and developing a 27km track. Finance Minister Michael Cullen announced the Overseas Investment Commission approval yesterday and said the sale included strong conditions about public access and conservation values. Twain - real name Eileen Lange - and husband Robert "Mutt" Lange were given approval because their application met all legal requirements, Dr Cullen said. The singer's legal representative in New Zealand, Queenstown lawyer Bryce Jack, said they intended living at the station for two to three months of the year. But the sale was slammed by the Green Party and others concerned about iconic land being sold to foreign investors. Greens co-leader Rod Donald said the sale sent a loud message to the world's wealthy that NZ was for sale. "If they want to buy a slice of heaven, they need to come and live here instead of treating us like a playground." Murray Horton, of the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa, said a large chunk of prime New Zealand land was now gone and had been priced off the market. However, Dr Cullen said the sale conditions would enhance both conservation and public access in a "beautiful part of the country". Under the conditions, all land above 1100m - just over half of the 24,731ha - will be retired from farming and subject to a covenant with the Department of Conservation. In addition about $200,000 would be spent developing a tramping track and other facilities as part of a nationwide hiking network called Te Araroa. About 4000ha next to the track in the covenanted area would be opened to the public. Te Araroa Trust chief executive Geoff Chapple said the easement through the two stations would be 27km long and was an essential part of Te Araroa's planned 48km trail between Wanaka and Arrowtown. The trust eventually wants to develop a walking route from Cape Reinga to Bluff. "To have 27km of track formation paid for, plus two huts and camping facilities, is seriously generous," he said. But Wanaka Community Board chairman Bill Gordon said he was disappointed another proposal for a more accessible track at a lower altitude for recreational walkers and mountain bikers had been rejected. The trail approved was suitable only for alpine trampers. However, he said the community would "welcome the Langes" and there was little opposition to the sale. Dr Cullen said the new owners would stop cattle farming and produce only merino wool.

 

Dangerfield: Comedian Rodney Dangerfield slipped into a coma while recovering from heart surgery in recent weeks but "is starting to show signs of awareness," his wife Joan said on Monday. The 82-year-old performer, who was reported by his spokesman to have been hooked to a respirator in intensive care since undergoing a heart-valve replacement on Aug. 25, was able to breathe on his own for the past 24 hours, she said. Dangerfield fell into a "light coma" a couple of weeks ago, but "after recent visits from his family and close friends, Rodney is starting to show signs of awareness, and we are all hopeful that he will regain full consciousness soon," she said in a statement issued through his publicist, Kevin Sasaki. She said Dangerfield remains in stable condition overall, and that "Our family remains optimistic that Rodney will make a complete recovery ..." The statement appeared to conflict in some respects with previous information provided by Sasaki, who said last week that Dangerfield was conscious when friends and fellow entertainers such as Jay Leno, Roseanne, Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler visited him at the UCLA Medical Center. Dangerfield, famed for his self-deprecating one-liners and the catch phrase, "I can't get no respect," has endured a string of health problems in recent years. The bulging-eyed comedian had double-bypass heart surgery in March of 2000 and an operation three months later to correct an aneurysm. He also suffered a mild heart attack in November, 2001. Last year, he underwent a brain bypass operation to reduce the risk of a stroke during or immediately after his heart valve replacement. Actor Russell Crowe looks set to make his directorial debut next year in a film based on a novel by John Hepworth. Oscar-winning Crowe will tackle his first role behind the camera in The Long Green Shore and has engaged award-winning American producer Mark Johnson for the film. The film is set during World War II and centres on an Australian battalion's mission in Papua New Guinea. Johnson, who won the best picture Academy Award for the 1988 feature Rain Man, said he was looking forward to working with Crowe. Macaulay Culkin has been charged with illegal possession of marijuana and a controlled substance after the former child star was arrested during a traffic stop last week, authorities said today.