Chris Hyde
Editor, Hawke's Bay Today
Chris Hyde is the Editor of Hawke's Bay Today.
We are your advocate, Aotearoa. Uncovering stories that matter, asking hard-hitting questions of those in power, live-blogging sport events, monitoring the highs and lows of the NZX and providing Premium expert opinion and analysis. Bringing you distinctive, quality journalism and breaking news from across New Zealand and around the world. With specialists working together to create indepth reads, engaging video, and unmissable podcasts.
Check out Chris’s latest content
Grant Bruce Jarden, 71, dies after glider crashed into Hawke’s Bay Golf Club
The incident has been referred to the Civil Aviation Authority.
Pilot dead after glider crashes on to golf course
It is understood a number of golfers saw the incident unfold.
Teenagers at Hawke’s Bay skid meet drive straight into waiting police checkpoint
Police had warned many of their parents in advance about what they were planning.
The video that shows how Napier residents would flee a daytime tsunami
GNS-created model turns people into red dots as they walk and run to high ground.
’Pattern of behaviour': Hastings council chided for stream and dam maintenance failures
Report delves into problems after Jessica Maxwell complained to the Ombudsman.
Hawke’s Bay’s 24 months of hard knocks since the cyclone
Opinion: So much work has been done, but the region doesn’t feel back on its feet yet.
Opinion: Would you pay $11.40 to watch 7 year olds play sport?
OPINION: I can’t hold back tides, but I don't want to keep paying through gritted teeth.
Arrest in Ariki Rigby case: Police charge man with murder of teen in 2022
Police make a breakthrough two years after the Hawke's Bay killing shocked the nation.
They ran for election. Now they're running a triathlon.
Mayors and MPs of Hawke's Bay will compete and raise funds for Heretaunga Women's Centre.
Free visits to the doctor tightened for Hawke's Bay youth amid funding concerns
The programme had the potential to exacerbate the 'postcode lottery' of health care: GP.
DNA testing confirms blood found 41 years ago is from missing girl
"The blood found at the scene is almost certainly a child of Robyn.”
Editorial: Hawke’s Bay Today is turning 25 - but we’re not popping champagne corks
A batter never raises their bat when they reach half of a half-century.
'Getting beyond the police': Eight members of rugby team and coach inside shot van
Club captain Guy Taylor was driving as shotgun pellets rained down on the van.
Rugby game turns violent: Knives brandished on rugby field, team van shot at
A photo shows the van with close to 50 holes in its back window.
‘Farcical’: Team climbed over fallen trees in darkness at height of cyclone to deliver mayor a piece of paper
Mike Bush is calling for high-level consideration of why the "dangerous" task was needed.
Rollers, roadworks and regulations: The crash at a 'death trap' that I saw coming
OPINION: As I drove away I said to myself, 'someone’s going to hit that roller tonight’.
My dad is slowly dying of motor neurone disease — there’s a chance the same fate awaits me
Slowly but surely, he'll be imprisoned in his own body. His plight could be mine one day.
Broken Ranfurly Shield still being fixed
Hawke's Bay says repaired Shield will be on the sidelines in time for their first defence.
‘Critical’: Luxon wants new dams built across the country
'I'm deeply, deeply supportive of more water storage.'
Opinion: Cyclone Gabrielle was many things, but it wasn’t unprecedented
OPINION: One thing we must do is make sure we learn from Gabrielle.
'Rollercoaster': National abandons support for new category for flooded homeowners
An idea Ruth hoped would get her home out of the red zone was supported on campaign trail.
Watch: Fiery scenes, two arrests; police say anti co-governance meeting 'unsafe'
The event came to an abrupt early end after a laptop was thrown.
Auckland stunned as 'gutsy' Tui upset the Farah Palmer Cup apple cart
Success in the premiership? Suddenly it's not an impossibility for the Tui.
Astonishing find: Hillside’s collapse reveals pre-18th century bones - 'they're our tīpuna'
Tara Hanara waded through flooded whenua she never knew existed, recovering her ancestors.
'Like we were inventing Christmas': 25,000 watch Bay's Matariki spectacle
All of the Napier-Hastings coast alight - it sounded like a nightmare but it was a dream.
Maddison Trophy epic as Tech score try in 82nd minute to beat Taradale
Reserve prop's incredible solo effort had Taradale in the box seat until the final second.
The broken heart of Rissington: What the release of Hawke’s Bay’s latest maps means
3000 homeowners opened an email to discover their future. It was always going to be tough.
The day the paddocks started moving towards homes: 'It's hard to put your mind around it'
Sunny Wairoa was suddenly hit by a wall of water. As winter approaches, questions remain.
An engineering marvel: What it’s like to drive the reopened Napier-Wairoa Rd
The most impressive thing is not what the cyclone has done to it, but what it hasn't.
The one word missing from the Government’s $1b Budget announcement
Opinion: The rolling maul of aid has arrived, but it won't bring joy for those flooded.
Hipkins reveals $941 million cyclone, floods recovery package
Money will raise stopbanks, fix roads and rail, and repair every damaged school.
'I have spoken my truth': Tearful Meka Whaitiri jumps ship to Māori Party
Labour Minister has now joined Te Pāti Māori: “Effective immediately”.
A supermarket ripped away - the Foodstuffs decision that should infuriate Hawke’s Bay
OPINION: “I don’t buy it,” a councillor said of Foodstuffs’ excuses, and fair enough.
Red Cross vows to review Cyclone Gabrielle response amid criticism
The Red Cross' largely unspent fund has become a flashpoint. Has it moved fast enough?
Stuart Nash: His only interview after announcing exit from politics
Stuart Nash walks into his Napier office, fresh from a massage, ready to talk.
Opinion: Undone by his contact book: Stuart Nash’s fall
From a provincial office, Nash became one of the most connected men in politics.
Chris Hyde: There is no need for a ‘debate’ about transgender women
OPINION: I am late to the party, and trying to figure out why we're having a conversation.
Stuart Nash, and the challenge of being a leader when a cyclone upends everything
OPINION: An electorate devastated amid new portfolios. That’s a heck of a job for one man.
A month ago, Hawke’s Bay needed rescuing - now we need answers
For the sake of residents who've lost everything, authorities need to show what happened.
Opinion: Why Hawke’s Bay crime can be so hard to decipher
OPINION: Hipkins has found out the hard way what people who cover crime know well.
Opinion: Pleas from a resilient Hawkes Bay - don't forget about us
Hawkes Bay has been completely devastated by the fallout from Cyclone Gabrielle.
This little piggy went to bed, in a flooded muddy bedroom it’s claimed as its own
Sometimes flood stories can sound a lot like fairytales.
Saturday promised a return to normality for Hawke's Bay - but the blue sky betrays us
OPINION: Instead of historic planes dancing in the blue, the sound of choppers blurs.
Hawke’s Bay diary: Amid the grim realities of flood, a bridge of hope
OPINION: Most stocked-up supplies in freezers and fridges are now slowly rotting.
Hawke’s Bay’s day of horror: We thought we were grazing a bullet, until it spun around a corner
OPINION: The water drenched us, the power cut crippled us.
From receptionist to reporter: Hawke’s Bay Today stalwart Linda Hall celebrated
OPINION: Linda Hall knows the pages of Hawke's Bay Today better than anyone.
Review: The 'just jokes' schtick of Jimmy Carr wears thin
OPINION: They're just jokes, Jimmy Carr insists. He's right. That's all they are.
House values fall close to 10pc in a year in Napier
Lines were once out the door. Now agents are 'lucky to get two or three to an open home'.
Lorde promises 'something special' as she announces second show in Hawke's Bay
Kiwi superstar says second show sounds "insane", but it's the right thing to do.
The Hastings apples: How a simple idea made a city more tempting
Opinion: A unique Napier trail of little deco sculptures would also be well received.
Editorial: Time for the rubber to meet the road for skid lovers
OPINION: The squeal of a burnout is annoying. So's the cry of those who want a legal pad.
Little change for Hawke's Bay in local body elections
Editorial: The lack of quality candidates to unseat the status quo really shone through.
Chris Hyde: The simple way to stop the Mankad before it spoils cricket
OPINION: A Mankad is everything cricket should be trying to avoid. It's time to punish it.
Comment: Potholes on our roads the bellwether of a warming world
OPINION: The world is heating up, and the pothole in my street proves it.
Chris Hyde: The body in burnt out car and the police - our empathy should extend to both
OPINION: A body left in a burnt-out car for two days is not good - a pile-on won't help.
It was there first, but its need to move became inevitable
Opinion: The moment Te Mata Mushrooms became a 'neighbours at war' story, it was doomed.
Chris Hyde: A simple way supermarkets can get back into our good books
OPINION: It's not just food prices irking customers, it the way they're being priced.
Crashes mar Hawke's Bay weekend: One dead, four seriously injured, one trapped down bank
Tragedy on road near Hastings one of at least eight crashes in two days.
The Anzac carving: Rissington's big stump that could become its biggest tourist attraction
Carved out of a single large redwood stump, two giant Anzacs would stand as one.
Editorial: The 'system' is creaking, and Hawke's Bay might pay for it
OPINION: Take a deep breath: Delta's barely dawned in HB, and the shambles has started.
Watch: Pilot of plane struck by laser over Napier decides to pinpoint the culprit
"On a night like that it's actually very easy to pinpoint a laser beam."
Editorial: The cardboard bread tag sums up why we're struggling to stop climate change
OPINION: Change comes with challenges, even for the smallest of things.
'We need to be staunch': Ministry granting travel exemptions without knowing vaccination status
Ministry hasn't been asking vaccination status of those it grants travel exemptions to.
Why not a Hawke's Bay version of Monopoly?
Palmerston North's getting its own Monopoly. So which streets would make a HB version?
Editorial: The Govt has thrown regional NZ a Level 2 hospital pass
EDITORIAL: Thousands of people are technically allowed to cram into stadiums. Technically.
Chris Hyde: It's time to give Waka Kotahi some credit
EDITORIAL: If there's one thing Hawke's Bay drivers hate being told, it's to drive safely.
Obese, jammed and heating up - the NZ region where 0.5pc take public transport
EDITORIAL: Within a 10-year plan's prosaic prose, a region's car love affair is laid bare
Opinion: The last thing Hawke's Bay needs is rich Aucklanders
Every time you lambast the Wānaka couple, the cost of a house in the regions increases.
Editorial: To my old friend, the new anti-vaxxer
OPINION: You popped up on my Facebook timeline unexpectedly this week. It's been years.
Editorial: Why all of NZ should get $20 a week off power bills in lockdown
When I woke to a new lockdown dawn the first thing I did was turn on my heat pump.
Senior's fury at 48-page anti-vax magazine in letterbox
The Real News has funding ties to failed fringe political party Advance New Zealand
Napier's pipe dream of chlorine free water is over
For those who've watched brown filth flow from their taps, this report is a gut punch.
Chlorine-free Napier water would take 22 years and cost $295 million, report finds
There's "no quick fix" when it comes to removing chlorine from Napier water, report finds.
Acid spill impact: Council says hundreds of fish killed
Galvanising Hawke's Bay said the assessment of aquatic life harm was "rubbish".
Police carrying guns after Napier drive-by injures two, say there is gang link
"I was in shock, like I couldn't move. I was just trying to hide myself somewhere."
Modern-day Maui: The day council staff stopped the sun at McLean Park
It didn't take much sun to stop play. But it took a lot of ingenuity to stop the sun.
Opinion: Council's Opera House development mistake
It's dropped the ball right in the heart of the area that it's already invested millions.
