White Island Aerial view after the volcanic eruption. Photo / George Novak
The Bay of Plenty Times is taking a look back at the stories of 2019. Here's what made headlines in December.
Cruise ship guests have been welcomed to the Port of Tauranga with a "pantomime pōwhiri" slammed as "blatant racism".
Photos taken this morning show guests from the Golden Princess cruise ship posing with several non-Māori men in crude skirts with "scribbles" across their faces.
Read more:
'Blatant racism': Cruise ship guests given 'pantomime' Māori pōwhiri at Port of Tauranga
The past 29 years have seen the launch of the internet as we know it, 9/11 and the Global Financial Crisis.
These years have also seen Tauranga Community Foodbank volunteer Robbie McGruer steadily turn up to do his bit for Tauranga's most vulnerable.
Read more: The foodbank volunteer pushing 30 years of service
Landbanking the Bella Vista properties would be a better option than selling them now, a property expert says.
Yesterday Tauranga City Council announced it was putting the 7500sq m Bella Vista subdivision at the Lakes on the market.
Read more: Bella Vista subdivision on the market
Electric scooter company Lime is eyeing up Rotorua and Tauranga streets.
Auckland Council dumped Lime and Wave scooters from its streets last week and gave licences to operate to two new, Singapore-based, companies instead.
However, Lime is having "ongoing conversations" with other councils such as the Rotorua Lakes and Tauranga City, general manager Ky Hacker confirmed this week.
Read more: Lime e-scooter company in informal talks with Rotorua and Tauranga councils
There were 47 people on or near Whakaari/White Island at 2.11pm on December 9 when the volcano erupted, spewing gas and ash into the air.
Horrifying footage of how a popular tourist spot was turned into a place of tragedy has been released in a 12-minute video by a tourist who was on White Island minutes before the eruption.
Read more: White Island eruption: Chilling video from day of eruption released
It was like a scene from Armageddon - grey, dusty and hard to breathe.
But heroic Rotorua pilot Tim Barrow from Volcanic Air says he would ignore the rules again in a heartbeat and land on a freshly erupted White Island if it meant saving lives.
It is thanks to the actions of Barrow and six other private helicopter company staff members that 10 people survived the horrific tragedy on Monday that killed at least six people.
Read more: White Island eruption: Heroic Volcanic Air pilot Tim Barrow speaks out
A new "courthouse of the future" will be built in Tauranga with a $100 million price tag, Justice Minister Andrew Little said this morning.
The courthouse will be designed in partnership with iwi, the local community, the judiciary, the legal profession, court staff and other court users.
Read more: Tauranga courthouse revamp: Government announces $100m investment
An intensive care nurse who worked tirelessly for days to help White Island burns victims has died in a road crash in the Bay of Plenty.
Sheila Cheng, 50, was killed after the vehicle she was a passenger in and another vehicle collided head-on on State Highway 30, Tikitere, just after 3.30pm last Saturday.
Read more: Whakatāne Hospital ICU nurse who cared for White Island victims dies in crash
Methamphetamine is tearing Bay of Plenty families apart - and it's grandparents who are picking up the pieces.
The latest figures from Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (GRG), a New Zealand charitable trust, show more than 900 Bay of Plenty grandparents are raising more than 1700 grandchildren who no longer live with a parent.
Read more: Grandparents pick up the pieces as meth rips apart families
Pet owners in Matua say they're living in fear after a series of dog attacks that have left a number of cats in the area either dead or reported missing.
They are now calling on the Tauranga City Council to take urgent action after their pets were savaged on Sunday night or early Monday morning.
Read more: Matua residents on edge after cats killed by roaming pitbulls, police called in
The city has recorded a number of big house sales this year. Property reporter Zoe Hunter unlocks OneRoof and Valocity's data showing which homes were crowned the biggest residential sales of the year.
Tauranga's property market has made a sizzling start to summer with an agent reporting two sales over $5 million.
Read more: Tauranga's biggest house sales of 2019 revealed
An "embedded culture of fear" in the mental health and addiction services department at the Bay of Plenty DHB created a "significant" level of clinical risk to patients.
That is according to a report by an independent consultant hired to look into the embattled department, where more than 70 staff members resigned in the preceding four years, and where people were found to be feeling "undervalued, unfairly treated, bullied and harassed".