Svitlana Batsula (left) fled the war in Ukraine to join her son and daughter-in-law Kateryna Batsula and her grandson Mark in Pāpāmoa. Photo / Mead Norton
The Bay of Plenty Times is looking back at the stories of 2022. Here’s what made headlines in September:
September 1:
Tim Pardy thought he’d beat it. Five months later his pancreatic cancer not only returned, but it spread. The father-of-three was battling stage 4 cancer and it came with a hefty price tag.
The family was spending $10,000 every three weeks in a bid to beat it. They spoke to Rebecca Mauger.
September 2:
More than 25,000 officials, supporters and intermediate-aged athletes descended on Tauranga as the Zespri AIMS Games returned for the first time since 2020.
Motels and large apartments were essentially booked out and at least one campground was nearly full, with a “surge” in accommodation bookings.
The event, which boosted the local economy by $6.5 million in 2019, was expected to bring a “much-needed lift” to businesses after a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19.
With 23 codes, the AIMS Games is for athletes aged 11 to 13 and has been described as one of the largest sporting championships in the Southern Hemisphere.
September 4:
Each morning when they awake, Ukrainians Kateryna Batsula and her mother-in-law Svitlana Batsula ask themselves: “What can I do today for our homeland?”
Svitlana, 51, arrived in New Zealand in May after fleeing the Russian invasion and reunited in Pāpāmoa with her son Kostiantyn Batsula and his wife Kateryna.
The couple, both 31, came to New Zealand in November 2018 seeking a better quality of life. Their son Mark was 8 months old in September.
The invasion began in February and Svitlana fled her war-ravaged country in March. She spent two months in Poland before being granted a special two-year temporary entry visa by the New Zealand Government.
September 9:
Tauranga man Declan Jones was left pondering adding one final - poignant - detail to a realistic portrait of the Queen tattooed on his arm.
Following Queen Elizabeth II’s death, the 25-year-old was considering adding the monarch’s death date to the intricate inkwork on his arm.
She was the Commonwealth’s longest-serving monarch and died at the age of 96 after 70 years on the throne.
September 18:
A pounamu toki unearthed from a building site in Tauranga’s CBD may be more than 500 years old, archaeological investigations found.
The greenstone tool, also known as an adze, was described as a “very significant taonga”.
It was found near The Strand, between Hamilton and Harington Sts, under a former carpark that will soon become JWL Investments’ multimillion-dollar Northern Quarter development.
Ken Phillips, archaeology consultant with Archaeologists BOP, said the adze was a “rare” find.
September 20:
Sam Uffindell was reinstated to the National Party’s caucus, but a political commentator believed it could be some time before the clouds dissipated around the Tauranga MP.
National stalwarts in the Bay of Plenty were rallying behind Uffindell after the party announced an independent report found allegations about his behaviour at university could not be substantiated.
Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson, however, slammed the timing of National’s announcement, saying releasing the findings on the same day as Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral was “pretty disrespectful” and “pretty cynical”.
September 22:
A Tauranga mum left “grappling with the news that our son might not wake up” made it her mission to give back to the charities that helped him recover.
A dog lead accidentally got caught around then-3-year-old Griffin Sievwright’s neck on December 10 as he used it to abseil down a slide at the family home.
Emma Sievwright’s husband Michael had been playing with Griffin, his twin brother Mateo and their oldest Angus, 5, on the outside play set but headed inside to start dinner.
“Next thing we knew Griffin somehow got the dog lead caught around his neck,” she said.
September 24:
Five thousand and five hundred dollars every 28 days - more than $200,000 so far.
That is how much Pāpāmoa’s Paul Cherry has spent on a drug he says is helping him fight his “incurable” prostate cancer diagnosis.
He was calling for GST to be removed from the price of cancer medications that are not publicly funded.
The 76-year-old is paying for a drug called Enzalutamide out of his own pocket because it is not publicly funded.
He says there are other treatment options available, but Enzalutamide would allow him to have “a better quality of life for a longer time”.
September 30:
Jeremy Staines couldn’t wipe the grin off his face on his first day back at work.
The 48-year-old Pyes Pā man, who lives with advanced cerebral palsy, was back selling coffee beans and grinds outside Tauranga Hospital after a seven-month hiatus.
Staines had been selling coffee products outside Tauranga Hospital for the past two years, but this came to an “abrupt end” in late January when he was told to leave the bottom carpark by security.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/man-no-longer-allowed-to-sell-coffee-products-at-tauranga-hospital/CCG5G23RNO2A7Z2NRLN74HJX64/’ target=’_blank’>At the time, Staines told the Bay of Plenty Times the move “hurt” him.
Man appears in court after fatal shooting in remote rural location.