Opinion: GLO Party perfect start to 2017

New Year's Eve GLO Party a hit. PHOTO/BEN FRASER

Welcome to 2017 - and hasn't Rotorua welcomed it in with a bang?

The city has come a long way from the days when New Year celebrations and trouble went hand-in-hand.

These days the celebrations have an amazing family feel to them.

Full credit to those who organised and were part of the GLO Festival for putting on three days of events for Rotorua people to head out and enjoy, culminating in Saturday night's GLO Party.

The proof of its success has been in the crowds that have turned out, the smiling faces and the amazing feedback.

As we've reported today, Rotorua emergency services had a relatively quiet New Year's Eve, as people largely behaved themselves.

With one of the most impressive fireworks displays Rotorua has seen in recent years thousands turned out at either the GLO Party or the display at Lake Okareka to bid farewell to 2016.

I think it is fantastic to see so much on offer for families - especially with the early fireworks to allow children to be a part of the celebration, and still get tucked up into bed at a reasonable hour.

As for me, I've always thought there was something magical about the New Year.

While it shouldn't take the changing of the year to usher in changes, it seems as good an opportunity as ever to take stock of what's around.

It feels like Rotorua, as a city, has grown in the past 12 months. New buildings are popping up around the city, several new shops have opened up in the CBD and developments like Motion Entertainment that have been talked about for quite some time have finally come to fruition.

And the exciting part is there seems to be plenty more on the agenda for the next 12 months.