Papamoa's Jonathan Gesthuizen is showing his short film Ice Cold at four international film festivals.

Gate Pa woman Garrath Stoddart wanted to do something to help hungry kids, so decided to cook Merivale School students a hot lunch three times a week.

The final round of the Baywide rugby competition was held on Saturday. In a key clash to decide the semifinalists in Premier 1, Te Puna defeated home team Te Puke Sports by 34-28 in a thriller. Despite the win Te Puna missed making the semifinals by a single point. Video/Andrew Warner

Tauranga City Basketball held two successful school holiday camps at ASB Arena this week. Hundreds of aspiring basketball players made use of the opportunity to learn basketball fundamentals with drills and games. Video/George Novak

The local Filipino community came out to enjoy a day of food and entertainment in Tauranga over the weekend. The first ever Winter Fun Festival, organised by Club Filipino and held at Otumoetai Baptist Church on Saturday, boasted not only national food from the Philippines but international cuisine from Japanese to Indonesian

Tauranga Boys' College student Louis Grindrod is at home and walking, only a month after a horrific rugby injury.

Tauranga's green wizard and environmentalist Noel Peterson has entered the race to become the city's mayor.

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller gets a fascinating insight into American politics.

A Tauranga marae is opening its doors twice a week to homeless Bay residents, offering them food, showers and washing facilities.

Ben, 14, Rory, 11, and Phoebe Robertson, 14, searching for Pokemon in Katikati Bird Gardens.

Tauranga Property Investors Association president Grant Harris said restricting investors would reduce the supply of rental properties and have the knock-on effect of increasing rents.

Tauranga kids keep fit during the school holidays with a visit to the Atheletics Factory.

Dairy operators say the increased price of cigarettes is likely to blame for the spate of robberies. Gurbaj Singh Cheema, 23, shop assistant at Girven Rd Micromart said he was afraid after hearing about the incidents happening at dairies and gas stations in Tauranga.

Tauranga City Council had granted the Tauranga Women's Refuge a rent rebate so they only pay $1 per year for the next two years.

Showtime is to become a lot more comfortable for Baycourt audiences when 534 new American-built seats are fitted early next year.

Garrath Stoddart has volunteered to make free hot lunches for children at Mrivale School.

About 80 people gathered at Red Square in Tauranga on Saturday to express their opposition to the sale of state housing in the city. Organised by Tauranga State Housing Action Network, speakers included Labour housing spokesman Phil Twyford, Merivale School principal Jan Tinetti, co-conveyor for Child Poverty Action Group and Green Party MP Jan Logie.

Te Puna Talks has been organised by long-time resident Beth Bowden to give people the chance to tell their stories in the familiar surroundings of the Memorial Hall before it was demolished to make way for the intersection upgrade.

The Mount Maunganui Post Shop and Kiwibank will close later this month. The branch will close on July 28 with postal and courier services shifted to the nearby Paper Plus store because Kiwibank had ended its contract.

Greerton Library has officially opened its doors to the book-loving public. Mothers, fathers, kids, teenagers and grandparents packed through the doors to check out the new library digs. Happy reading!

A walkthrough of the brand new Greerton Library

Club rugby highlights from around the Bay.

Shargin Stephens, 35, was shot twice in the stomach by a police officer on Te Ngae Rd on July 14, 2016. Video / Ben Fraser

Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby, Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller and NZ Transport Agency acting Waikato/Bay of Plenty regional manager Dennis Crequer turned the first sod of the Poike Rd overbridge this morning.

The Pokémon craze gripping the Bay has so far not resulted in any casualties but it is turning educational campuses into battlefields. Bay of Plenty Polytechnic Maori facilitator Wiremu Te Kanawa said the campus was a hot spot for Pokémon trainers.

Joshua is 4 years old and half his short life has been spent fighting the blood cancer leukaemia. His mother Cathy Dale talks about what it's like to have a 4-year-old with cancer.

Launched last week, the Pokemon GO app is an augmented reality game, which combines an image of a Pokemon cartoon character, with the user's real world view. Campbell Davies 8, and Charlotte Davies, 12, have caught the Pokemon GO app fever.

Mount Maunganui surfer Raiha Ensor, 16, hopes to represent New Zealand in surfing at the Toyko 2020 Olympics if the sport gets acccepted by the IOC next month.