Fifty years ago Rotorua became a city.
Rotorua was given city status on April 27, 1962, after reaching the then population threshold of 20,000.
In 1960, the then Rotorua Borough Council considered the possibility of attaining city status, but the official estimate of the population was 14,000.
However, on July 1, 1960, the Western Heights/Kawaha Point area came into the borough and brought with it an additional 4000 people. On April 18, 1961, the Government statistician advised that the population following the census was 19,362.
On March 14, 1962, the Government statistician again wrote to the council notifying that the population of Rotorua was then estimated to be in excess of 20,000, the figure required for city status.
On the day Rotorua gained city status, Joseph Cox was the first baby born in the city's hospital. He also featured on the front page of that day's edition of The Daily Post.
Although Mr Cox no longer lives in Rotorua he said he was happy he would always have a connection with his home town.
"I still have a lot of family there," said Mr Cox who moved to Wellington in 1982. "I guess it is a bit unique and different. Not a lot of people share a birthday with an occasion like that."
Mr Cox said he didn't make a big deal of the fact he shared his birthday with the day Rotorua became a city.
"The kids' aunties all tell them but I don't go round telling people."
Rotorua Mayor Kevin Winters said Rotorua had come a long way since it became a city in 1962.
"Since then, the City of Rotorua and a number of other towns and communities have come together into single local authority unit known collectively today as Rotorua district," he said.
"It's worth noting that on April 27, 1962, a special council meeting of the then borough council was convened to proclaim Rotorua a city. Sitting around that council table, which was chaired by the borough's mayor Mr AM Linton, was our own respected historian and a councillor in those days, the late Don Stafford."
Mr Winters said in Mr Stafford's book The New Century in Rotorua he recorded that the city council came into being exactly 79 years to the day since the original Rotorua Town Board held it first meeting to mark the introduction of local body affairs in Rotorua in 1883.
"Rotorua has changed a lot in the subsequent 50 years. Today we are world leaders in many areas, including the tourism, geothermal, and forestry and wood processing sectors, and our agriculture has grown exponentially thanks to generations of pioneering farmers and leading-edge science and technology," he said.
"We are the heartland of Maori culture and many of the facilities we as a community enjoy today are the result of the historic generosity of Te Arawa and a number of ground-breaking partnerships with iwi that continue to flourish to this very day."
Mr Winters said there was nearly 70,000 people living in the Rotorua district and the district's famous natural features and man-made attractions were shared with two million visitors every year.
"We're certainly a much more diverse and cosmopolitan community than we were in 1962, and we are undoubtedly richer for that ethnic and cultural diversity. But some things haven't changed much at all. Most Rotorua people remain passionate about and loyal to Rotorua and to our wider community," Mr Winters said.
"They are committed to helping and supporting others in the community who are less fortunate and, in times of real need, as seen in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake, they can be counted on to be among the first to respond with help regardless of territorial boundaries. Those old-fashioned values and the spirit of manaakitanga or traditional hospitality, remain imbedded in our psyche," he said.
"That makes me as proud to be the mayor of Rotorua today, as I am sure Mayor AM Linton was when he declared Rotorua a city 50 years ago."