The Bay of Plenty Times is looking back at the stories of 2023. Here’s what made headlines in March
March 2
Underwhelmed punters hammered the promoter of the Monster Trucks Extreme tour with a flurry of complaints after its Tauranga show.
More than 260 complaints were made after a sold-out show at Baypark Stadium in Tauranga, some calling for a refund.
The show was marketed as being a huge, not-to-be-missed event with wild flips and tricks but many attendees took to social media to complain of being disappointed and bored, with some leaving early.
The promotion company primarily blamed issues with the venue, including the PA system failing.
March 7
Weather experts confirmed just how terrible last summer was.
Tauranga had more than 750mm of rain over the season, the city’s highest level of rainfall since records began in 1898.
The news comes after Niwa released its Climate Summary report for the 2022-2023 summer period.
The report showed Tauranga was hit with 287 per cent of its normal seasonal rainfall, a total of 754mm.
In February alone, the city had 231mm of rain, a level Niwa reported as being “well above normal”.
March 10
Kiwifruit growers were “under the pump” and “hurting financially” and the hunt was on to find thousands of seasonal workers for this year’s harvest.
But unlike recent years, industry experts were not predicting a significant labour shortage due to a combination of projected lower harvest volumes, automation, more international worker availability and Kiwi staff returning.
It came as New Zealand kiwifruit export marketer Zespri forecast a slump of up to $144 million in its corporate net profit for the 2023 financial year compared with last year.
In 2022, the industry was hammered by fruit quality issues, and this year some kiwifruit orchards in every growing region have been impacted by adverse weather events.
March 16
“It simply isn’t about the money.”
That was the view of teachers striking in Tauranga, with tens of thousands of educators walking off the job nationwide calling for better pay, higher staffing numbers and more school funding.
Some of the 1900 Western Bay PPTA and NZEI members, and their supporters, gathered at the Tauranga Racecourse and had now headed to various picket sites around the city including outside Education Minister Jan Tinetti’s Tauranga office on Cameron Rd.
Other locations include Fraser St, the Bethlehem shops between roundabouts on the Countdown side, Chapel St across from the entry to Bay Central Shopping Centre, and Domain Rd in Pāpāmoa.
March 16
Long grass, uncut hedges and trees growing over the footpath had one resident calling Tauranga “the most unkept city in New Zealand”.
Richard Fenn, 80, lived near Elizabeth St in Tauranga and said a lack of maintenance was creating an “awful view” for people coming into the city.
“Walking around town, there are lots of weeds growing up to half a metre high, coming out of kerbs and all over the place.
“I’ve been here for 21 years and it hasn’t just happened today. It’s been all the time we’ve been here, nothing’s changed.”
March 18
A family of four who lived in a single bedroom for almost three years say they can finally breathe again after being handed the keys to a brand new home.
After becoming caught in Rotorua’s housing crisis, Tuterangiwhiu and Carmen Grant-Cairns were grateful for a friend’s offer of a bedroom, which the couple shared with their two young daughters for all of that time.
The family were given the keys to a newly built three-bedroom home at Sanctuary Point in Tauranga, as part of Habitat for Humanity’s rent-to-buy Progressive Home Ownership system.
Through tears, Carmen explained the sensation of having the weight of uncertainty finally lifted from her shoulders.
March 20
The food budget for Chanchal Saraswat’s family had doubled in three years, but the Tauranga mother saved money in her weekly shop by buying seasonal vegetables, buying in bulk and sharing with others.
When the Bay of Plenty Times last spoke to Saraswat in 2020, she had a weekly budget of $120 to feed her family, but that had ballooned to between $250 and $300.
The increase was largely due to the cost of food, she said, but their two sons, aged 10 and 7, were eating more than they used to.
Stats NZ figures showed food prices increased by 12 per cent over the past 12 months – soaring the most since 1989 in the year to February.
March 22
A $197 million Tauranga water treatment plant 18 years in the making and more than $80m more expensive than planned finally opened — but this did not mean an end to water restrictions in summers to come.
For the launch of the Waiāri Water Supply Scheme, Tauranga City and Western Bay councillors, council staff, and others involved in the project gathered at the Te Puke site.
The event prompted concerns from a Te Puke resident who believed the project was not sustainable for the Waiāri Stream. The crowd was also told some did not want a Te Puke water source supplying Tauranga homes.
The plant would supply drinking water to roughly 35,000 households and the council has said it was designed to meet Tauranga’s demand now and for the next 30 years.
March 27
Meth-addicted family members using elderly relatives like an “ATM” to fund their drug habit.
Desperate seniors arriving at social agencies straight from the hospital wearing a “dressing gown”' and with no money.
Elderly relatives guaranteeing their children or mokopuna’s loans and then having to take on the debt - or sell their home - when repayments aren’t made.
Bay of Plenty social agencies said these were just some examples of the financial abuse elders were enduring.
March 29
Seven ambulances filled with medical supplies were set to leave New Zealand for war-torn Ukraine, where attacks had turned hospitals and medical centres to rubble.
The donations came about after former Tauranga Mayor Tenby Powell saw first-hand a line of people stretching more than 300 metres, all desperately seeking medical care in the nation under siege by Russian invaders for more than a year.
Powell, a well-known businessman and New Zealand Army lieutenant commander who previously served a tour of duty with United Nations peacekeeping forces in the Middle East, spent several months in Ukraine and Poland last year offering aid.
During this time Powell created the not-for-profit group Kiwi Kare (Kiwi Aid and Refugee Evacuation) while delivering supplies and evacuating vulnerable people out of danger.
OPINON: It has been a big six months and there's plenty more to come.