As the Rotorua Daily Post enters a new era, former deputy editor of its forerunner The Daily Post Jill Nicholas looks back through Rotorua's time tunnel.
Trawling through books of cuttings that record more than 40 years reporting the news in Rotorua, the phrases "change is constant" and "some things never change" came to mind.
Of course each statement contradicts the other, but all will be revealed as I reflect on a period that's been full of contradictions, controversies and the progress that preceded the present inertia plaguing the city.
Because it's unpleasant, let's get the first topic that's remained unchanged in four-plus decades out of the way. It's crime. From 1970 (the year I made Rotorua home) onward it's frequently been the main story of the day, something that generates readers' complaints, backed by claims of media negativity.
The difference between then and now is that while it still made the front page in earlier years, reports on it would have been less visible, one of up to 10 stories, squeezed between an earthquake in Peru and flooding in Pakistan.
Those were the days when international news was considered to be of more reader interest than locally-based stories. It wasn't until after the turn of the century that you put us right on that score.
But back to crime. Rotorua's had some horrific cases. The first trial in the newly designated Rotorua Supreme Court, renamed the High Court, was in October, 1973. It centred on manslaughter and wilfully ill treating a child, charges laid against an infant's mother who admitted being incapable of loving her babies. The eventual verdict was infanticide.
It was a tragic case, probably only eclipsed (if that's the correct word) by the killing of Nia Glassie.
All that was long before my tenure at The Daily Post. My first Rotorua posting was as the "man on the beat" for New Zealand Truth. Rotorua was assigned to me because, as a region, it generated so much news of national significance which it continues to do.
Several years at the then Radio Geyserland followed. It was there I became closely acquainted with another prime news source, the council. Initially there were two to cover, the county and the city. In 1979 Rotorua led the nationwide move to amalgamate local bodies.
In 33 years we've had only three mayors, each with a rural background. Choosing the first district council mayor was achieved with machinations similar to those surrounding the recent Papal election.
The regional council was established next. How "same old, same old" that amalgamation's again being mooted with a "one size fits all" Baywide council under discussion.
When Rotorua's councils combined there were so many members they couldn't fit around the existing council table. Meetings moved to the Soundshell and in summer were held in the dark. Befuddled councillors weren't to blame, it was that Rotorua phenomena - trout flies. The Soundshell's lights were a beacon for them, switching off was the only way to keep them at bay.
The new council needed a building befitting it. Affectionately nicknamed "Keaney's Castle" after sitting mayor, John Keaney, critics branded it too big, yet it's long outgrown itself.
Another local body given extensive coverage was the Rotorua Electricity Authority (RAEA, later Rotorua Electricity).
When I came to town power bills were paid to the Tourist & Publicity Department but in 1971 the RAEA came into being. Its major achievement was commissioning the Wheao Dam. I'm continually surprised how few recall the Wheao's spectacular collapse on a wet, stormy night on December 30, 1981. Why is it, I muse, do so many of our major events coincide with such appalling weather? The night of the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake was equally awful, so it was when the calendar flipped from the 20th century to the 21st.
But I digress. After its government-enforced devolution, Rotorua Electricity was no more. In its wake came the Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust (RECT) and what a fight its establishment generated. Letters to the editor filled whole pages of The Daily Post. The lobby group Power to the People was a formidable force.
What most will best remember were the 600 Rotorua Electricity shares "qualifying customers" received. The remainder were vested in RECT with the dividends they've reaped providing amenities, grants and scholarships rates revenue could never have subsidised.
But the furore following Rotorua Electricity's demise wasn't Rotorua's only battle royal of my reporting years. Who can forget 1987's Bore Wars? They were a journalist's dream.
Some of the city's leading lights chained themselves to their bore heads, a number were arrested. The Bore Owners' Association was super-charged. How ironic that moves are afoot for Rotorua to return to a geothermally-powered city.
Shifting Government Gardens control from central to local government sparked another angry outburst with mutterings from some councillors that the Blue Baths should be bulldozed because retaining them would be competition for the newly-built Aquatic Centre. Common sense prevailed but they were closed for years. A forward-thinking action group saved Te Runanga Tearooms.
The museum's finally finished, albeit 100 years late, we've had two libraries (the second already extended), a parking building's been erected, we're on to our third post office/Post Shop. In 1970 a manual telephone exchange was part of the building that's become the Travel Centre. Then our phone numbers had three numerals and messages were sent by telegram, not text. Traffic lights and roundabouts were still to come.
A third police station's in the making, the court house has seen several incarnations; the airport's become transtasman capable while trains have vanished completely.
When the Government returned the railway land to Ngati Whakaue another controversy flared but like it or loath it, look what we now have; a mall where the country's major retailers queue for space.
Sporting facilities have multiplied; we've acquired the grossly underused International Stadium and most codes now have home bases. A skate park's been established and there are suburban youth spaces. The Convention and Energy Events Centres have been built, the Civic Theatre's been revamped, the City Focus installed, the CBD's been upgraded with moves afoot to rejuvenate it, likewise the Lakefront.
The lakes have been returned to Te Arawa ownership with Lake Rotorua far cleaner than it was the day a Swedish scientist branded it an "unflushed toilet". A landmark Waitangi Tribunal decision kept a sewage pipeline out of the Kaituna River. The tribunal was instrumental in Te Arawa receiving a handsome government settlement.
The Rotorua Daily Post has gone "mod" and is all the better for it.
Tourism, forestry and farming continue to dominate. Farming will always face cyclical challenges and there's no denying forestry's not the income earner it once was, but the face of tourism has changed exponentially.
Our attractions have become global market players. I cite the Agrodome (when it burned down a new one rose more quickly from the ashes than the proverbial Phoenix), Rotorua Skyline and Polynesian Pools (now Spa) which turned the crumbling Ward Baths single-sex-only pools into an international award-winning complex. Add in Wai Ora and QE spas and Rotorua's been returned to its "taking the waters" roots.
However, it's the plethora of adventure activities, mountain biking included, which we now host and boast about, that have changed Rotorua's face and financial thrust beyond recognition.
Tertiary education and health services have had major overhauls. The Community College of the '70s is now the Waiariki Institute of Technology, the Wananga's well patronised.
It's easy to lose track of the organisations which have administered our hospital. Somewhere between the Hamilton-based Waikato Hospital Board and the present Lakes District Health Board came a Crown Health Enterprise. My all-time favourite headline on this newspaper's front page read "Government serves up CHE(ese) Boards", the words of a clever sub editor. For some reason, those in authority weren't so amused.
The main hospital, with its new multi-million dollar block, continues to blossom while Queen Elizabeth Health's rehabilitation services are being restructured.
At least three churches have swapped sites since 1970. Then St Luke's was where the Haupapa St car park is now, St John's shifted from the Pukuatua St hill (since bulldozed) and the Bainbridge Church went from Hinemoa St to Old Taupo Rd.
Politically, Rotorua's been red and blue; between them Labour and National have produced five Cabinet Ministers and a Speaker of the House.
As well as law makers, we've nurtured an impressive number of judicial law enforcers. The tally reached eight with this week's appointment of former Rotorua practitioner, Rob Ronayne, to the Bench. As Tauranga's Crown solicitor he's prosecuted regularly in the high court here.
In this retrospective trek through my personal time capsule there'll be organisations and events I've overlooked.
There is, however, one date that remains paramount; it's November 25, 1980, when Rotorua celebrated its centenary. Not only did it mark a major milestone but the huge debt of gratitude we owe local iwi for donating the land on which all these happenings have, well, happened.
It's that cultural heritage we've been bequeathed that makes this region so uniquely "our place".
Another councillor said his stance was 'disingenuous' after he backed additional funding.