Editorial: Fun events put our Bay on the map

Visitors flocked to the bay to take part in this years "Big Easy"

I'll let you into a secret. I'm proud to be living here in the Bay. As a former resident from Bay of Plenty, we all know there has been this long-standing argument as to which is the real Bay between Hawke's Bay and my former home region.

When I first arrived at Hawke's Bay Today I jokingly said to my workmates "Isn't Bay of Plenty the real Bay?" which was met with a resounding "no!"

Now, I'm not so sure about my former allegiance to the Bay of Plenty, especially when you look at how great this region is at putting on great events. This weekend Hawke's Bay residents and visitors flocked to the region to take part in the Big Easy.

It was great to see the sea of blue T-shirt riders of all ages enjoying our beautiful scenery, food, wine and entertainment.

As mentioned on page 5, the two-day event has been a boom for Hawke's Bay with the organisers of Saturday's event saying as many as 1500 riders took part in the ride from Havelock North Domain to Church Road Winery in Taradale.

The relaxed 45km journey offering plenty of opportunities for riders to sample Hawke's Bay food and wine along the way.

Then there was yesterday's Ride the Runway event which saw planes give way to 500 riders for an hour at Hawke's Bay Airport. Riders either raced or took their time down the full length of our main runway which organisers believed could be a world first for an airport to allow such an event.

All I can say is take a bow the Bay because with these sorts of initiatives it's hard to argue that Hawke's Bay isn't THE Bay.