Te Tuinga Whānau Support Services Trust Kaitiaki and whānau support mentor Baldy. Photo / George Novak
The Bay of Plenty Times is looking back at the stories of 2021. Here's what made headlines in April.
A woman sprinting hundreds of metres in high heels helped save Peter Hall's life.
The mental image of the mystery woman, running frantically to get help, brings the 53-year-old cardiac-arrest survivor close to tears.
Hall was out for his regular morning run around Gordon Carmichael Reserve when he went into cardiac arrest on October 20.
People driving past quickly came to help Hall, who was lying on the ground unresponsive.
He shared his story to launch the St John Heart of Gold annual appeal which aimed to raise $1.8 million.
Matua became the second Tauranga suburb to join the million-dollar club, according to a house price report.
CoreLogic's Mapping the Market 2021 report showed Matua has reached a median property value of $1 million.
Meanwhile, the city's cheapest suburb, Parkvale (also known as Merivale) - topped the charts for growth in median values in the last 12 months, reaching $586,900.
Plans for a local te ao Māori curriculum were hailed as setting a "new benchmark".
Tauranga Moana iwi announced they were developing a localised te ao Māori curriculum for Tauranga schools, early childhood education centres and the wider community.
The project, called Te Tai Whanake ki Tauranga Moana, will encompass foundational te reo Māori, local tikanga, stories and history, and be a resource for all educational organisations in Tauranga, as well as being accessible to the wider community in the future.
Ngāti Ranginui education manager Toni Heke-Ririnui said the project was "uniquely Tauranga Moana" and signalled the first time the three iwi had been brought together with one goal in mind.
"My God, it hurts."
These are the words Heather Powell reaches for when trying to describe a family tragedy so devastating it defies description.
In 2009, Heather and her husband, David, lost their 15-year-old son, Michael, to suicide.
He was their third-born, loved art, drama and music and shared a room with his younger brother, Christopher, in their Waihī Beach home.
It took a long time for the couple and their surviving three children to come to terms with Michael's death.
The family moved to Australia for six years in an attempt to move through their pain. The move also provided an opportunity for their youngest son, Christopher, to study architecture in Tasmania.
However, not long after the 10-year anniversary of Michael's passing 22-year-old Christopher took his own life.
The couple shared their story.
Future generations will be the main winners of a decision to wind down the Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust (TECT) and its associated cheques over the next 30 years, business leaders believe.
TECT trustees confirmed they would go ahead with a plan to restructure the trust and wrap it up by 2050.
It planned to retain enough money, an estimated $291 million to $413m, to continue issuing TECT cheques — the nickname for the annual rebate to Trustpower customers in Tauranga and the Western Bay — over this period.
The rest would go to the new TECT Community Trust.
A judge dealt out more than $150,000 in fines to parties found guilty of Building Act breaches linked to the failed Bella Vista development.
The sentencing came more than a year since the district court trial started and more than three years since 21 homes in the development were evacuated by the Tauranga City Council and the saga began.
In a decision released, Judge Paul Mabey QC sentenced five parties involved in the development and found guilty of Building Act breaches after being prosecuted by the council.
The council was to receive 90 per cent of the fines.
Two Mongrel Mob members are hoping to change gang culture from the inside out after a lifetime of crime.
Karl Goldsbury and "Baldy" have both served plenty of jail time but are now working with Tē Tuinga Whānau Support Services to help reduce gang harm.
They are even working alongside police gang harm reduction co-ordinator Damien White, who said both gangs and police understood that "not every gang member is a criminal".
Young people who didn't have any convictions were often joining gangs — police are now focused on finding ways to "keep them on the straight and narrow".
White said Goldsbury and Baldy were playing a big part in that.
The council is taking legal advice as it decides next steps for the marine precinct deal.