The Waimarie celebrated carrying its 10,000th passenger for the season, 3500 more than the 2020 season. Photo / Paul Brooks
As 2021 draws to a close, we look back at some of the news highlights of what has been another year like no other.
May 3
Paddlesteamer Waimarie carried its 10,000th passenger for the season, reflecting recent growth in Whanganui tourism.
Manager Phil Pollero said it had already beaten last year's Covid-19-hit season by more than 3500 passengers.
He put the increase down to New Zealanders travelling within the country, and "doing some of those things they always meant to do but had not got around to".
"We've had huge support from people travelling about and travelling on our vessel.
"We were 38 per cent ahead on 2019, and 54 per cent ahead on last year's shortened season."
May 11
Whanganui's main street was closed down for the day as a large-scale Hollywood production came to town.
Small crowds gathered outside the security fences at the bottom of Victoria Ave, with Ridgway St and Victoria Ave transformed into 1918-era Texas by Dancing Pictures, owned by US-based parent company A24 Films.
The details of the project have not yet been made public, other than the fact the film is believed to be of the horror genre and set in the early 20th century.
The central city location was specifically chosen to take advantage of Whanganui's famous heritage architecture, with many businesses transformed to appear as chemists or butcheries from the outside.
Whanganui locals were among the extras involved in the production, including mayor Hamish McDouall, dressed in a full 1910s get-up.
"It's been really great fun. All film is moments of panic and hours of waiting around, but this is great," McDouall said.
May 13
Whanganui writer Airini Beautrais won New Zealand's biggest writing prize.
Beautrais was named the winner of the $57,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards in Auckland.
Beautrais' Bug Week is the first short story collection to win the major prize in more than a decade and only the second in the awards' 53-year history.
The collection was described as a "knockout" by convener of judges Kiran Dass.
Well-known as a poet, Beautrais' first book of fiction was published by Victoria University Press last year.
"Casting a devastating and witty eye on humanity at its most fallible and wonky, this is a tightly-wound and remarkably assured collection," Dass said.
"Atmospheric and refined, these stories evoke a strong sense of quiet unease, slow-burning rage and the absurdly comic."
May 26
A Whanganui-born career soldier made history in May after being promoted to one of the army's most senior ranks.
After three decades of service to the New Zealand Defence Force, Colonel Rose King was promoted to the rank of brigadier within the NZ Army, becoming the first general-list female officer to be promoted to the rank.
Previously, only two female officers, a lawyer and a doctor, have reached the rank of brigadier but King is the first to have reached the rank having spent her entire career within the Defence Force.
May 26
Keen stargazers gathered at Whanganui's Ward Observatory to view a rare space phenomenon New Zealand hasn't witnessed in decades.
The observatory was open so people could witness the rare "blood supermoon", a rare combination of three factors: a full moon, the moon being at its closest point to Earth in its orbit (supermoon) and a total lunar eclipse.
The last time all three of these occurred in New Zealand was almost 40 years ago, in 1982.
May 27
Whanganui has bigger priorities than its velodrome, according to district councillors who voted against funding a roof for the facility at a cost of $20 million.
Instead, Whanganui District Council will allocate $2.5m to repair and maintain the velodrome track over the next two years.
When debating the council's long-term plan this week, councillors were locked at six-all when voting on a proposal to include $20m in the budget for the velodrome project,
subject to confirmation 55 per cent of that would be covered by external funding.