Editorial: Airport at last a scene of joy

People loved the Rotorua Airport open day.

Mention the words Rotorua Airport and you might automatically be drawn to negative thoughts.

Long-standing feuds with local iwi, battles over extending the runway, debate over tall kahikatea trees, controversy over payouts to neighbouring landowners, rows over whether we should go transtasman and finally fallout over debt to build an international airport.

It's fair to say the Rotorua Airport has been a saga.

But all that was brushed to one side yesterday as thousands of locals went to the airport to help celebrate its 50th birthday.

The celebration, which doubled as an open day for our emergency services, was a huge success.

Organisers had hoped for about 5000 people at best, but more than 11,000 poured through the gates.

It was a superb family day out and was brilliantly organised.

The healing of some of the wounds from the past was fittingly summed up with the official welcome being carried out by Ngati Uenukukopako - a Te Arawa hapu which has historically been an arch enemy of the airport.

While there is no doubt the controversy surrounding the Rotorua Airport is far from over, it sure was nice to put it aside for an afternoon and help celebrate the good.