Six candidates now in running for Hastings byelection

Hastings/Havelock North ward candidate Alezix Heneti. Photo / Nicki Harper

A sixth candidate has joined the race for the Hastings/Havelock North ward seat in the Hastings byelection, and she's running to create possibilities and success.

Alezix Heneti is about as far removed from a pale, stale, male candidate as you can get - she's a bright, high-energy, independent 58-year-old woman who has made the move back home from the big smoke of Auckland, after 38 years away.

The daughter of long-time successful Hawke's Bay shearing gang contractor John Whaene Karaitiana and Huia Pere, she said moving back to the Bay had not been on her to-do list until recently.

Rather it was the idea of her first-cousin Kim Thomson (nee Neho), to whom Ms Heneti has been an unpaid caregiver for the last 10 years, the pair now grateful to have finally got a rental house in Havelock North, after 15 weeks of searching.

"It's been a bit of a change coming back to a smaller place - it wasn't planned," Ms Heneti said, fresh from living the fast-paced city life both here and in Australia, as well as a stint in the United States.

Over the years since she left Hawke's Bay, where she had attended Parkvale School, Hastings Intermediate and Karamu High School, she said she had built up multiple successful businesses ranging from op-shops and recycled boutiques to telemarketing, landscape designing and consulting.

She had also given years of voluntary service to community organisations from stroke support to youth groups - fitting all that in between being a mother to five children, now joined by 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

She said the skills she would bring to council included delegation, picked up through being one of 19 siblings, and the knowledge gained through extensive training in Landmark - a personal and professional growth, training and development company focusing on people achieving success.

"I create possibilities, help create success, fulfilment and greatness for people, communities, organisations, institutions and businesses.

"I support an extraordinary, united, dynamic and cohesive Hastings council."

No stranger to the campaign trail, she had run for mayor in Hamilton twice, the Northland district once and Auckland council once in 2016.

In Auckland she said it wasn't unusual to speak to 350 people a day, but she did not intend to be so active here, rather focusing on reconnecting with extensive family network.

The other confirmed candidates were Bruce Bisset, Chris Perley, Eileen Lawson, Rion Roben and Stuart Perry.