Bay of Plenty mayors happy to share Auckland Anniversary

Auckland Anniversary is celebrated by towns and cities in the historic Auckland Province. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER

Bay of Plenty mayors and locals are ambivalent about whether the region should have its own anniversary weekend.

The region is observing Auckland Anniversary and enjoying a long weekend because of it, but the anniversary encompasses from Northland to the Coromandel, Gisborne, the East Coast and the Bay of Plenty.

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick said having a Bay of Plenty anniversary weekend "doesn't make sense" and questioned what such a weekend would focus on.

"Our visitor industry keeps on coming here to enjoy our spaces regardless of the number of anniversary weekends at this time of year," Chadwick said.

"This weekend we are full and we love it. I would rather focus the conversation in the district on what we could do locally at Waitangi weekend and also grow Matariki as a local celebration.

"These ideas are being discussed as a part of our Rua Reo commitment."

Tauranga mayor Greg Brownless said the issue wasn't at the top of the list and didn't mind if the region had its own anniversary or continued to be included with Auckland.

He said it was a pain trying to co-ordinate family visits when other areas had anniversaries on different weekends so was happy the Bay of Plenty was included in the Auckland holiday.

Brownless suggested renaming the anniversary to reflect the region but leaving it on the same weekend as Auckland Anniversary.

"Call it the Upper North Island Anniversary or Anniversary Weekend and co-ordinate the same dates across the whole country," Brownless said.

"I don't actually see any huge advantage. I don't mind if it's renamed but to do it on different dates doesn't make it easy."

Brownless said having a large geographical area covered by the public holiday also drew people to the area.

"People get together on holiday weekends," he said.

"It probably works both ways as people go away from here."

Whakatane governance agreed it was good for the economy to share Auckland Anniversary weekend.

Mayor Tony Bonne said there were more important things to worry about.

"To me, having the same anniversary as Auckland is good for our economy because we have a lot of Aucklanders coming down here for the weekend," Bonne said.

"So keep it as it is, I'm very happy and the Bay of Plenty economy is actually benefiting from it."

Bonne thought making a separate anniversary would have a negative effect.

Deputy mayor Judy Turner was "more than happy" to share the anniversary weekend.

"As a tourist destination there's benefit for our region for us to coincide with Waikato and Auckland areas," Turner said.

"We get benefits from a tourism point of view I think. There's an advantage in sharing with other regions."

The Auckland anniversary is observed by the historic Auckland Province region which were abolished in the 1870s but covered a large geographical area.