The Rotorua Daily Post is looking back at the stories of 2023. Here’s what made headlines in August.
August 1
Ram-raiders who smashed through the entrance of a Rotorua shopping centre drove a vehicle about 60 metres into the mall before targeting four stores inside.
Black tyre marks could be seen on the floor where the ram-raiders drove the vehicle through the southern entrance,facing Victoria St, to one of the stores inside.
August 8
At 41 years old, Vanessa Gordon has just started her first job.
The Rotorua mother-of-one is waitressing 13 hours per week at Valentines Buffet Restaurant and Bar in Rotorua.
Prior to starting work two months ago, Gordon says she had been on the benefit.
“It’s pretty awesome actually to get out there and actually make money.”
Gordon recently completed the Miss Rotorua Mana Wāhine programme — an eight-week course that helps women who have been unemployed for longer than 12 months to find work.
August 12
Little Neihana Renata was bumbling around on his wobbly feet and legs exploring life and learning — just like any other toddler.
It was 2016 and he was attending daycare in Rotorua when he was served cut-up apple — food which at the time the Ministry of Education did not recommend for children so young.
He choked and was starved of oxygen for 30 minutes.
Today, he’s severely brain damaged.
He’s still unable to put one foot in front of the other and lives his life being moved from sitting in a wheelchair, standing in a frame or lying down.
Neihana’s mum Marama Renata said: “We were at the playground and I was watching children running around and I thought to myself, ‘He needs to use his legs’.”
She began researching and came across the Trexo walker.
August 15
Within five hours, a Rotorua family’s dream to see their disabled son walk again became a potential reality.
Neihana Renata’s family set up a Givealittle page to raise the $70,000 needed for robotic technology that would allow the 9-year-old to take steps.
The little boy was left severely disabled as he was starved of oxygen for 30 minutes after choking on an apple at his daycare seven years ago.
The Rotorua Daily Post Weekend published a story about their fundraising goal on Saturday morning, and by lunchtime, the target was met.
August 29
Road workers and drainlayers are ditching New Zealand for Australia, where they can make more money and work all year round, industry figures say.
The “exodus” adds to fears for the roading and civil works sector as “massive infrastructure deficit and massive maintenance issues” plague the country, with Rotorua’s council saying shortages are driving up costs.
Graham Rodgers, of recruitment agency Success Group, said in winter, the civil workforce decreased because many projects were weather-dependent and “if it’s wet, they can’t work”.
Details revealed about five men caught up in an underage prostitution ring.