A good holiday break, and mood

Opinion

Another New Year’s is behind us as we start to turn our attention to the demands and opportunities that 2019 will bring . . . and that comes with a feeling that this year’s break has been a successful one.

After a wet and sometimes gloomy start to summer, the weather played its part with warm but not excessively hot weather.

The main events of the New Year’s break have passed successfully. Rhythm & Vines, now under the ownership of global live music giant Live Nation, completed its 16th festival. Although the presence of potentially life-threatening drugs was a disappointment, the festival rolled on for thousands of happy campers from around the country and without serious incident.

Drugs are a continuing worry at all music festival events, reflecting how widely available they are in society generally. Drug testing at these events is a sensible response to the problem of dangerous illicit drug cocktails.

Another continuing success was the Fire in the Sky fireworks display, which has been a New Year’s Day highlight since 2002. Credit must continue for sponsor Walter Findlay Ltd, a local firm giving back to the community that has supported it.

These big events contribute to a general feeling of goodwill that has prevailed, at least in public, throughout the two holiday breaks.

It does seem that there are more people, especially families, about this year. The council would have been pleased to see the no vacancy sign at the Waikanae Beach camp on New Year’s Day.

Gisborne and the beaches of the East Coast continue to have almost unlimited potential for tourism at this time of year, and something for Activate Tairawhiti to build on.

It was also a relief that there were no serious road accidents here. Gisborne suffered its share of the 2018 road toll, the worst for a decade.

Today and tomorrow are working days, although many people have taken them off and the holiday mood — in which people wake up wondering what day it is — will continue on to next Monday.

So bring on 2019 then. After the last two weeks, we can face it refreshed and ready. Pause perhaps to take a look at the world scene, and realise how lucky we really are.