Aiomai Nuku-Tarawhiti says she was asked to leave Farmers Tauriko and labeled as an undesirable by a staff member. Photo / Andrew Warner.
Aiomai Nuku-Tarawhiti says she was asked to leave Farmers Tauriko and labeled as an undesirable by a staff member. Photo / Andrew Warner.
The Bay of Plenty Times is looking back at the stories of 2021. Here's what made headlines in December.
December 2
A museum, hotel and a performing arts and conference centre could be built in the heart of Tauranga's CBD as part of a renewed master plan for the civic redevelopment.
And if it's given the green light it could happen within the next 10 years.
The civic redevelopment plans were revealed by Tauranga City Council and its commissioners in a briefing at the University of Waikato yesterday, where about 60 of the city's business and private sector heads gathered.
A preliminary artist's impression of what the redeveloped civic centre for Tauranga will look like, with a hotel pictured centre. Image / Supplied
December 4
Sitting in the sunshine at a Mt Maunganui cafe, sipping coffee with his mum, Duax Ngakuru looked like any other bloke on his summer break.
It was December in 2017 and Ngakuru was staying nearby in a $1000-a-night holiday home he had rented with his wife, children, and their maid, where they celebrated Christmas a short walk from one of New Zealand's most popular beaches.
This trip was a homecoming for the 37-year-old Rotorua native, who had risen through the ranks of one of Australia's most notorious motorcycle gangs, the Comancheros, to allegedly become a major figure in the international drug trade.
Former National Party leader Todd Muller has revealed he will run at the next election despite announcing in June that he would retire.
It comes as the Bay of Plenty MP has been named as an unranked member of the Chris Luxon-led National Party caucus. Muller holds the oceans and fisheries and internal affairs portfolios.
Muller said he was comfortable with not being given a ranking.
A "ticking time bomb" is how one landscaper describes the doubled traffic volumes at Tauranga's only public dump, with another calling it an "accident waiting to happen".
And there are fears the congestion will only get worse as the city's population swells with summer holidaymakers.
The Tauranga City Council closed Greerton's Maleme St Transfer Station — which had been leaking contaminants into stormwater — to the public in August, after it rolled out a new citywide kerbside rubbish and recycling collection.
The entrance to the Te Maunga Transfer Station. Photo / George Novak
December 10
Viv Jones thought she had been attacked by a man when she was knocked down while walking along Mount Maunganui beach.
So she was perplexed when she saw the offender was a large dog.
Two months later, Viv is still nursing broken bones and trauma from the incident, which has fuelled calls from two respected New Zealand sportsmen for changes to local dog control by-laws.
Viv Jones, pictured with husband Allan Jones, is still receiving treatment weeks after being knocked down by an uncontrolled dog. Photo / George Novak
December 11
Three vaccinated people spent two weeks in a house with an 11-year-old with Covid-19 and did not catch it, her mother says.
Pāpāmoa mother Joanne Gates told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend her family's experience, in her view, shows vaccination works and she backs it "110 per cent".
"We have functioned in the house with her and not caught it," she said.
"She had Covid, we didn't catch it ... because we were double vaxxed."
A heartbroken and tearful Rotorua teenager has spoken out about the hurt at being called "undesirable" by a staff member who asked her to leave Farmers at The Crossing in Tauranga on Saturday.
Aiomai Nuku-Tarawhiti, 15, and her Tauranga cousin, Shae Brown, 25, say they feel humiliated at being the subject of what they say was ''racial profiling'' by a Farmers staff member who, they said, told them they looked like they were going to steal something.
The staff member then turned to the 15-year-old and told her she looked "undesirable".
Aiomai Nuku-Tarawhiti says she was asked to leave Farmers Tauriko and labeled as an undesirable by a staff member. Photo / Andrew Warner.
December 18
It was meant to be a five-minute trip, but Maree Geary and Shane Carnell's car plunged into the Tauranga harbour killing Maree, an expectant grandmother and recent retiree.
Cira Oliver speaks to Carnell and Maree's son Josh Geary who pay tribute to a 'one-of-a-kind' woman.
Family violence, drink driving, health problems, broken relationships, debt and gambling could increase if buy now, pay later schemes are used to buy liquor, some believe.
But those offering the schemes say the onus is on the buyer to manage their purchases and only buy what they can afford.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment had been seeking feedback on the relative benefits and costs of buy now, pay later schemes. Consultation closed on December 16.
DOC said reports of great whites had increased since May 2020 and although an estimate of the number of sharks in the area could not be confirmed, photographic ID so far had identified six individual great whites.
Photos and video footage would continue to be monitored to determine if sightings are of the six identified, or if the area was seeing a steady increase of new marine visitors.
Lockdown-fatigued Aucklanders are snapping up rentals in Tauranga while priced-out local workers are holed up at motels and camping grounds, a property manager says.
Another says a lot of the fresh rental supply is new builds that many renters, including some workers and retirees, can't afford.
Figures from Trade Me show the median average rent last month in Tauranga hit a record high of $600 a week, up from $520 the same month last year.
