Today we continue a month-by-month feature looking at the stories that shaped Rotorua during 2011.
May 6
Three Kawerau schools are being forced to close in a Ministry of Education decision that has angered the community.
The town learned yesterday that Kawerau Intermediate will close at the end of this year and three primary schools will be rolled into one because the number of children continues to drop. Kharisma Greenwood, 11, left Kawerau South Primary School last year. After 2011 at Kawerau Intermediate she will be going back to Kawerau South next year.
Kharisma and her sister sister Ngamihi, a Year 8 student at Kawerau Intermediate, were two of 150 students told their school would be closed.
Kawerau Intermediate School principal Daryl Aim and board of trustees chair Trina Hayes had to break the news to staff, students and parents following a meeting between principals, board chairpersons from the six schools, Education Minister Anne Tolley and ministry delegates yesterday.
May 9
Progress on the controversial Rotorua Eastern Arterial route has hit a speed bump after the city council refused to back a preferred option until local Maori have had their say.
At a recent meeting of the Rotorua District Council's infrastructure services committee councillors were asked their preferred option for the route. However, councillors voted 7-5 against backing any one of the three options put to council by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) until a full cultural impact essessment has been completed.
It's understood the road will not go ahead without the support of the local council, which would be in charge of building the road.
May 17
It's not often Rotorua's Kingi Biddle is lost for words, but he was after taking out a prestigious speech-making competition at the weekend.
Mr Biddle won the New Zealand International Prepared Speech award at the national Toastmasters competition in Auckland.
The broadcaster and entertainer's speech, titled Hello - about the power of saying hello - has taken him past club, area, district and national level competition and he is on his way to the United States for an international Toastmasters competition in Las Vegas.
Mr Biddle is part of the Rotorua Lunchtime Toastmasters group. Toastmasters is a learn-by-doing workshop in which participants hone their speaking and leadership skills.
May 19
Whakarewarewa Village's iconic penny divers have been told to stay out of Puarenga Stream because it could be polluted.
Children have been diving in the stream for pennies thrown into the water by tourists for nearly 100 years and carry the coins in their mouths. They have been warned to stay out of the stream which Tuhourangi spokesman Wally Lee says has been tested and shown to be contaminated. Bay of Plenty Regional Council has conducted further tests and is awaiting the results.
Mr Lee featured on Maori Television's current affairs show Native Affairs claiming the water in the stream, which runs through Whakarewarewa Village to Lake Rotorua, contains high levels of PCP and E coli.
Antisapstain chemical pentachlorophenol (PCP) was used to treat timber at the former Waipa Mill before it was banned in the late 1980s.
May 23
Rotorua's Tony Gray may not have hit the jackpot but he was happy with his Lotto win at the weekend.
He regularly buys his Lotto tickets at Countdown Rotorua in Fenton St and had his fingers crossed he had become a multimillionaire after Saturday night's Lotto draw. A winning ticket sold at Countdown Rotorua netted the buyer $10,632,434 and has yet to be claimed. The prize was made up of $10,132,434 from Powerball First Division and $500,000 from Lotto First Division.
Mr Gray was happy enough to walk out of the supermarket with an extra $200. He said he bought Lotto tickets every week. "You have got to be in to win."
May 28
Rotorua residents have embraced the "planking" craze and while it may seem like a bit of harmless fun, people are being warned not to take things too far.
The term "planking" has been given to the online craze involving people posting photos of themselves laying flat, face down and with arms to the side, often in public places.
A Planking Rotorua page has been set up on social networking website Facebook which has attracted more than 200 fans while a Planking New Zealand page has more than 12,000 fans. Rotorua residents have been posting photos on both pages.
The craze came into the spotlight recently when an Australian man fell to his death from the balcony of a high-rise apartment in Brisbane. He was "planking" on the rail of the balcony, seven floors up.
May 30
Taupo BMX rider Jed Mildon feels lucky to be alive after succeeding with a world-record stunt.
On Saturday the 24-year-old became the first person in the world to do a triple backflip on his BMX bike. But his elation at achieving the record was preceded by dread - he had dreamt he was going to die.
Mildon had to roll in from a 20-metre-high start ramp into a three-metre take-off ramp, do the stunt over a 10-metre gap and then land on an eight-metre-high landing ramp.
He admitted he had been nervous about it. "I actually had a dream three months ago that I was going to die soon and I thought this was the day, so I just committed 100 per cent and went for [the stunt] and, look, it came out good. Everyone's smiling, so I'm stoked." In the end, he told The Daily Post, "I knew it was all going to happen and it all just fell into place."
Some of his warm-up stunts failed, but it felt "a bit unreal" when he succeeded. "I'm so pumped to have aimed for something once deemed impossible and made my dream a reality."