Kiri Gillespie is the Assistant News Director and a Multimedia Journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times, covering local politics in Tauranga.
Kiri Gillespie is the Assistant News Director and Multimedia Journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times. You could say she’s a people person. She worked in hospitality and tourism in Rotorua before embarking on a career in journalism. Having cut her teeth in newsrooms in Rotorua, Wellington and Gisborne, Kiri joined NZME in 2010, based in Tauranga. In 2011, she led coverage of the Rena sinking and the environmental disaster that followed. She has covered some of the biggest issues affecting the Bay of Plenty. Kiri mostly covers Tauranga's civic and political landscape and the growing pains the city is experiencing as its population grows. Being a voice for the underdog is a big part of what drives her. As the whakatauki goes: He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. “What is the most important thing in the world? The people, the people, the people.”
Mayoral contender Mahé Drysdale to commute from Cambridge if he wins
'I’m still very passionate about the city. I love it, being where I grew up.'
'Great concern': Mayor's worry for people using congested SH2 as new route delayed
'You do it one day and it takes one hour and the next day it takes two hours, it's hard.'
Flood survivor, 73, says units found ‘unsafe for elderly’ should be demolished
Future of flood-damaged pensioner units is to be decided this week.
'Now...not in 30 years': Leaders ask Govt to fast-track Golden Triangle highway
The highway is a key arterial route linking Auckland, Tauranga and Hamilton.
Watch: Half-naked man luges down road
Video has emerged of a man riding down the Kaimai Range on a luge, swerving in and out of lanes.
$53.5m schooling package revealed
The investment of $53.5m in schools in Tauranga, Hamilton and Hawkes Bay is part of the Budget 2016.