People take in the first sunrise of 2023 at Cheltenham Beach in Auckland. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Goodbye might be the kindest thing we can say about you, 2022.
In a time when every new turn of the calendar seems as unmoored as the last, the third year of our century’s third decade naturally held steadfast in solidarity with its woeful 2020s forebears.
Again we battled Covid-19′s ongoing impact, climate change-influenced floods lashed Buller and Nelson, and social division - including a violent end to the three-week occupation of Wellington’s Parliament grounds - soured the start of the year.
And new challenges emerged - the cost of living soared, Russia illegally invaded Ukraine, and the only British and Commonwealth realm monarch most alive had known died.
Still, amid the rota of misery, 2022 also delivered a healthy serving of wild, wacky and, yes, even some wonderful.
And 2023 promises even more, after being welcomed last night by Kiwis in homes, at festivals, around bars and on beaches nationwide to celebrate the new year in exuberance and hope.
The new year arrived in an explosion of colour in Auckland, with 500kg - or about 3500 individual flares - let off from the Sky Tower in a five-minute extravaganza promised to be “bigger and better than ever”.
Discos, bonfires, cultural shows, concerts and carnivals took place elsewhere, as thousands made for town centres, parks and streets before the clock struck midnight.
This morning, Kiwis’ thoughts can return to the year ahead and top of the list for many will be the chance for the All Blacks to find redemption at September’s Rugby World Cup in France after 2019′s semifinal loss to England.
The politically minded won’t have to wait too long after the tournament to decide whether Labour and Jacinda Ardern deserve a third term, or if a switch to National under newbie leader Christopher Luxon suits.
Whoever makes it to the ninth floor of the Beehive will face challenges aplenty, with almost all experts predicting a recession, house prices heading south and inflation keeping pressure on household finances.
But it’s not all doom and gloom.
The consensus among experts now is that inflation has peaked, although it’s expected to average at a historically high 6.3 per cent this year.
And a recession might make it easier to get a builder or plumber at short notice - assuming you can pay for those services because you haven’t been laid off because of the contracting economy.
Sometimes we need to find relief over our morning cornflakes in the shallow puddle of the celebrity world.
It certainly paid dividends in 2022.
Harry and Meghan continued their war on the Windsors, rolling out a six-part, self-titled Netflix documentary serving again as a megaphone for their tales of woe.
Among them was the Duke of Sussex’s claim his brother William, the future King, screamed at him during a meeting over the couple’s future, a dramatic addition to the history of an institution with plenty of dysfunction, but which also farewelled 70-year monarch Queen Elizabeth II months before Harry and Meghan was blasted out to the streaming giant’s 223 million subscribers.
Also in the UK, the libel trial between pro footballer wives Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney - dubbed the Wagatha Christie trial - ran hot in the tabloids and beyond, when Vardy sued Rooney for libel after the latter alleged her fellow football wag (wives and girlfriends) leaked false stories to the media.
Vardy lost, but not before a trial described by ESPN as a “postmodern mishmash of high and low culture, with High Court judges taking a crash course in the minutiae of Instagram’s logistics and etiquette, while bewigged and plummy-accented barristers questioned Vardy on the appendages of C-list celebrities” provided material for a West End show, TV dramatisations and a slew of podcasts and documentaries.
Across the Atlantic, warring exes Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were embroiled in their own defamation rip-snorter - Depp would ultimately win $15 million in damages over Heard’s allegations he’d repeatedly physically and sexually abused her. Meanwhile, fellow US actor Will Smith stunned an Oscars audience of millions when he slapped host Chris Rock over a joke about wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
Who knows what the wealthy and badly behaved will get up to this year, but we can already have a peek at the better angels of their celebrity.
Live music lovers will be spoiled with Elton John concerts this month, and Ed Sheeran next month.
And age has not wearied Harrison Ford who, at 80, returns for the latest Indiana Jones instalment, Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny, out in June and coming 42 years after Ford first donned his fedora and whip in the hit adventure franchise.
One of the massively popular Marvel franchises is also back, with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in theatres next month.
Back in the real world, laidback Kiwis’ eyebrows were raised last year by failings more lame than maniacal - and there’s no reason to believe there won’t be more weird happenings in 2023.
Christchurch’s Tūranga library made headlines around the world after an automated door programming error opened it - sans staff - last Waitangi Day, with oblivious users checking out 147 books on the self-issue machines.
The mishap was sparked by a frustrated user unable to find a librarian to help with checking out CDs.
“I’ve decided to take the CDs,” the music fan wrote in a crotchety note left for staff.
“[It’s] to teach you a lesson in how not to operate a functioning library.”
But no lessons were needed for those who swelled our pride on the sports field.
While football’s World Cup final between Argentina and France last month, with its superstar rivalries, dazzling goals and nail-biting penalty shootout climax, has been described as the best in the game’s history, it was our women in black who won hearts on this side of the world in 2022.
In the same year a scathing review had found New Zealand Rugby failed to support women’s high-performance rugby - with some players reporting favouritism, body-shaming and culturally insensitive comments - the Black Ferns awed new fans with their attack and flair on the field, culminating in a hard-fought final win before a delighted hometown crowd in November.
Women’s sport will again be celebrated Down Under with the Football Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia from July.
But while the joy of superstar player and personality Ruby Tui kept smiles on faces beyond the final whistle of the Eden Park final, her cheer was welcome in a time when life outside the suburban sporting fortress had become punctuated by brazen, violent attacks on small businesses - ending in tragedy when newlywed Sandringham dairy worker Janak Patel was slain after an alleged robbery a month before Christmas.
Rose Cottage dairy has since reopened to wide community support, as other businesses join schools in shutting down for the festive season, and holidaymakers scattering across the country enjoy mostly settled weather and warm temperatures.
Some won’t make it home, with almost daily deaths on our roads and in our waterways, leaving families grieving as a new year gets under way, and police reminding everyone to look out for their mates.
“We all have a responsibility to ensure our friends and loved ones are safe this summer,” acting commissioner of police Glenn Dunbier told the public hours before last night’s celebrations began.
“So keep an eye out and report any concerns you have.”
For others, 2023 is a time of new beginnings and new hopes that need no date on a calendar to remind them so.
On Christmas Eve, new mum Adi Koloamatangi told the Herald of her and husband Ofa’s delight at the arrival in 2022 of healthy baby boy Isaiah, who came into their lives after four miscarriages and renewed their dreams for the future.
That goes on today, tomorrow and beyond for the little family of three of Māngere.
“We were just amazed,” Adi Koloamatangi said of the future that arrived in a 4.5kg bundle of hope and joy.
“There’s three of us now.”
A boatie who helped with the rescue effort says 'heart-wrenching is an understatement'.