Bay of Plenty Times Year in Review: September 2019

Joe Fraser credits kicking his 25-year smoking habit to vaping. Photo / Stephen Parker.

The Bay of Plenty Times is taking a look back at the stories of 2019. Here's what made headlines in September.

September 3:

One school may ban unvaccinated students from attending the AIMS Games as measles sweeps across the country.

AIMS Games is the biggest tournament of its type in the Southern Hemisphere with about 11,500 children from 368 schools from around New Zealand and the Pacific expected to take part in Tauranga.

It's expected up to 800 unvaccinated children could be attending this year's event.

September 3:

A $5.6 million gain from a single sale of a Mount Maunganui home has topped the list for the city's biggest sales in the last quarter.

The five-bedroom home on 983sq m of land was initially bought for $355,000 in November 1988.

The Marine Parade property sold for a whopping $6m in May this year.

The house that made $5.6m. Photo / George Novak

September 3:

A new primary school will be built in the Tauranga suburb of Brookfield catering for almost 600 pupils.

A total $16 million will be spent on relocating and expanding Brookfield School on a new site about 300m down the road from its current Millers Rd address.

Brookfield School principal Ngaere Durie when the announcement was made. Photo / George Novak

September 4:

Five people have died after a tourist bus rolled in bad weather on State Highway 5 at Ngātira, near Rotorua.

Two others were seriously injured when the bus rolled and came to rest on its side.

Inspector Brent Crowe told reporters that 27 people were on the bus, and five on board had lost their lives as a result of the crash.

Scene of a fatal bus crash on State Highway 5 at Ngatira in the Mamaku Ranges west of Rotorua. Photo /Ben Fraser

September 7:

This is a behind-the-scenes look at how local health authorities are dealing with the worst measles outbreak in at least 20 years.

Reporter Scott Yeoman spends time with the experts as they trace infections and attempt to prevent the spread.

And he talks to people who have had their lives changed by this highly contagious and potentially deadly disease.

Dr Phil Shoemack, pictured at Rotorua Hospital. Photo / Stephen Parker

September 12:

American singer-songwriter Ben Harper will perform at Mount Maunganui as part of a five-date New Zealand tour.

The three-time Grammy Award winner and seven-time nominee, along with his band The Innocent Criminals, will open their tour in New Plymouth on February 21, 2020 before performing in Christchurch, Auckland and Napier before closing with a show at Mount Maunganui's Mount Park on February 29.

Matt Corby has been added to the line-up for the Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals' 2020 New Zealand Tour inFebruary. Photo / Getty Images

September 13:

Tauranga building company Coast Homes Ltd has gone into liquidation, owing a significant amount of money to the taxman.

The director of the company, property developer Stephen Short, told the Bay of Plenty Times today that he closed Coast Homes down a year ago after it had built all the houses it needed to.

September 15:

There was a time when many places were foggy with cigarette smoke and the smell of stale tobacco hung in the air. Cars, restaurants, bars, and workplaces - all were areas where people could light up as they pleased. But not any more. Smokers have been pushed outside, often enduring the glares and pointed coughs of non-smokers. But with the explosion of vaping, it has suddenly become cool once more to puff away on a little stick. But is vaping safe?

Joe Fraser credits kicking his 25-year smoking habit to vaping. Photo / Stephen Parker.

September 16:

The Government's motel tab for Tauranga's homeless has hit a record $1 million in three months, with one holiday park fielding more than six queries a day from families seeking somewhere to live.

The crisis has been blamed on skyrocketing rents and a shortage of public housing, with a pregnant solo mum telling the Bay of Plenty Times she considered giving up her unborn baby when she was stuck in a motel, before she secured a home for $510 a week.

September 17:

Not all heroes fly in the sky. Some fly straight into the ground - and get back up.

This was just what Mount Maunganui Intermediate Year 8 student Marlowe Orr did at the AIMS Games - and won $500 for his school.

Marlowe Orr was on the ground for mere seconds before he got up and finished the race. Photo / James Steiner

September 17:

Tauranga is looking to be the likely location for a joint Australasian venture that plans to set up a cannabis cultivation facility to benefit medicinal research.

The Bay of Plenty is being considered as the base for the Greenfield MC NZ research facility, in conjunction with Tauranga-based firm Wepiha Health.

Cannabis plants being cultivated like this could be coming to Tauranga. Photo / Supplied

September 25:

Most dogs are lucky to get a tummy rub and a bone. However, a Mount man has gone as far as taking a second job for his beloved pooch.

Hayden Walker was given an ultimatum a month ago to put down his beloved staffy Boi or fork out close to $10,000 for an operation to save him.

He chose the second option and connected with a Gisborne honey-maker to raise the funds to get his 6-year-old dog on the operating table.

Hayden Walker and Boi. Photo / Supplied

September 29:

A new dad's life is in pieces after his fiancee died giving birth to their first child at Tauranga Hospital.

The little girl Shelly Cockburn had already named Kora survived, and her grieving father Kirk Ross has given up work to raise the infant without her mother.

Kirk Ross at home in Maketu with his 3-week-old daughter Kora Cockburn-Ross. He is now left to bring up his child with just the help of family. Photo / Alan Gibson