The front page lead story started: "The Eastern District (which includes Hawke's Bay) is leading the country with its increasing crime levels."
It recorded that police statistics showed burglaries in the area in the 12 months to the end of October were up 312 per cent on the same period a year earlier, and that among the 12 police districts throughout the country, the district had the highest increase in crime rate.
The lead story on Page 3 started: "Hawke's Bay has 'raced up' to third place in the ASB/Main Report Regional Economic Scoreboard measuring economic growth."
The report said Hawke's Bay had jumped 10 places, was having a great year in tourism and horticulture, was outperforming all other areas in guest nights and residential construction, and was in a "favourable position" heading into summer.
Out of all the events emerge many champions, including Hawke's Bay Today's Person(s) of the Year Bill and Anne Perry, who in the first week were confirmed to have sold the Waipatiki Beach campground to the Napier city, Hastings district and Hawke's Bay regional councils.
They must have withstood substantial pressure to sell much more lucratively on the commercial market, but strived to ensure that the paradise would remain available forever for public use.
Perhaps more formally, the commercial entrepreneurs of the region pulled out their best suits and ties and evening gowns on November 17 to recognise the rock stars of their sector, with Napier transport repair specialists Eastern Truck and Marine named Westpac (Hawke's Bay) Business of the Year.
The greatest honour was left until today when possibly the biggest-ever recognition of Hawke's Bay people in the annual New Year and Queen's Birthday honours list included the naming of long-time St Joseph's Maori Girls College principal Georgina Kingi as the latest Hawke's Bay person to be bestowed knighthood or damehood.
Of the two big water issues, there were more over November and December, including both the laying and withdrawal of Hawke's Bay Regional Council charges against the Hastings District Council over matters surrounding the Havelock North water crisis, and the post-local election hints that the Ruataniwha Dam plans may be on the backburner.
The one particular time when we could have all done with more water was on November 23, when the climate we all reckon is the best in New Zealand was at its best - with the hottest November temperatures in New Zealand for 16 years, and the hottest in Hawke's Bay in more than half-a-century, topped by a 34.1C maximum in Wairoa.
As climate goes generally, it was an unusual year, with rainfall in most areas from Hastings to Wairoa well down on averages, most notably in Northern Hawke's Bay, where precipitation has been barely two-thirds of the 30-year average.
Conversely, rainfall in the more traditionally drought-prone area of Central Hawke's Bay has in some parts been well above average.
The climate makes Hawke's Bay a must-stay for many touring the country, but there has been wide debate about one group - freedom campers and their proliferation of foreshore zones.
In December, the Napier City Council completed a consultation process which will lead to bylaws, but in the meantime put further conditions on campers, including a holiday-season closeout in Westshore and limiting stays at Westshore and Ahuriri's Perfume Point to two nights.
Our climate also inspires a range of outdoor concerts, the first biggie of the summer being when three times Grammy winner Ben Harper and his Innocent Criminals played the Church Road Winery in Taradale on December 3 - making up for the group's withdrawal from the Mission Concert series earlier in the year.
There was a significant moment of innocent in the more serious sense just a few days later when a jury in Napier took barely an hour at the end of a trial lasting more than a week to find four Napier police officers not guilty of aggravated assault relating to the arrest of a man who died while being taken into custody, at Westshore in March 2015.
The death did not relate to anything done by the officers.