A rare sight: Napier Port without logs during the Covid-19 level 4 lockdown.
Hawke's Bay's building industry experienced a boom in the year ending March.
And that was despite Covid-19 slowing the approval of building consents in March.
How big a boom?
There were 254 - 43.9 per cent more - residential building consents issued in Hawke's Bay in the year ending March 2020, than the same previous 12 months.
The national increase was 9 per cent. Hawke's Bay punched well above its weight.
The value of non-residential consents grew to $186 million (21.2 per cent) in the same period. Nationally, there was a -0.4 per cent decline. Again, we bucked the trend in a positive fashion.
Napier Port has reported a strong first-half profit on increased revenue, but will not be paying a dividend.
The Hawke's Bay port company's net profit for the six months ended in March rose 40 per cent to $12.8 million, with a 7.5 per cent increase in revenue to $52.3m.
Deloitte is predicting that of 15 regions, Hawke's Bay is second in the order of strongest regions poised to work its way through the Covid-19 financial recovery.
Our vintners are predicting that this is going to be one of our best seasons. Long, dry summers are a boon when you harvest grapes - but we shouldn't raise our glasses to that without acknowledging what the same conditions do to our agricultural sector.
Before Covid-19 came along, the drought was hurting our rural sector. And the pain continues.
In places like Northland or the Waikato, where there is a heavy reliance on dairying, those economies can struggle.
The difference for Hawke's Bay is that when one sector struggles, others continue to contribute to the regional economy.
There will still be challenges, we are a region that is still subject to commodity prices, and reliance on international demand.
But the strength of the Hawke's Bay economy, pre-Covid-19, will see it perform better than others as we recover.
For many sectors, the remainder of 2020 is going to be a challenge in multiple ways.
But there are worse places to be right now, in New Zealand.
The Christmas story also recalls another birth, John. This is why it all matters to me.