Editorial: Highs & lows of news

Rotorua had both good and bad news happening over the weekend, the bad being the number of emergency callouts.

The news business is certainly one of highs and lows.

Take this weekend for instance.

We have some happy news in our newspaper today including the money raised as part of the Waiariki Institute of Technology Charity House project. The effort saw a house built by the institute's students sold at auction for $143,000. Although they would have hoped for more, there was still a profit of $2000 left over to pass to the Rotary Club of Rotorua Sunrise to be distributed to the community.

Then there's the superb celebration at Te Puia on Saturday night showcasing Maori showbands as part of the organisation's 50th anniversary, coupled with the coverage of the annual Santa Parade earlier that day.

But today we also bring you some horrible news. It's fair to say Rotorua had a shocker over the weekend in terms of emergency callouts.

It seemed every time I turned on my phone to check emails, Facebook or Twitter, another tragedy was occurring in our city.

Early on Saturday, a young woman was critically injured after being hit by a car on State Highway 33 at Okere Falls, then later that same day another teenager was hit by a bus and suffered serious injuries.

Yesterday, locals and emergency services scoured Lake Tarawera for the holidaying father and daughter who fell out of an overturned boat on Lake Tarawera. Their bodies were recovered by police divers yesterday.

More accidents happen in warmer weather - we live in an adventure playground and the warmer temperatures result in more people being out and about.

Please, everyone, be careful out there.