Manpreet Basra an essential worker at Four Square Koutu. Photo / File
The Rotorua Daily Post is looking back at the stories of 2020. Here's what made headlines in March.
March began as it always does in Rotorua, as Crankworx drew hundreds of international riders to town.
Locals flocked to Skyline, even the rain didn't stop them getting involved.
But the event quickly felt the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic which was starting to reach all corners of the world.
competitors were forced to self-isolate in their hotel room as a precaution over coronavirus.
Former prime minister Sir John Key officially opened the international Pullman Hotel in Rotorua.
The 130-room Pullman Rotorua is the first cosmopolitan international five-star hotel in the Bay of Plenty region.
Key said the hotel was a "very, very important" facility both for Rotorua and for New Zealand's tourism sector.
Te Pikikōtuku o Ngāti Rongomai was crowned the best at Te Arawa Kapa Haka Regionals 2020.
The group's performance was dedicated to Himiona Herbert, an original member who died suddenly at 46 in October 2019 from a brain aneurysm.
The group was the overall winner and one of six heading to Te Matatini in Auckland in 2021.
in Rotorua's Kuirau Park placed where "streeties" gather during the day captured activity of a different kind as homeless and those in emergency housing put donated sports equipment, including a cricket set, rugby balls and a frisbee, to good use.
The streeties, as some call themselves, told the Rotorua Daily Post it had proved a great incentive to "get them off their butts".
On March 20 Rotorua confirmed its first Covid-19 case.
The man arrived in the country from France on March 13 and was the nation's 24th confirmed case.
Lakes District Health Board said he was a tourist and was tested in the Waikato District Health Board area before going straight into self-isolation in accommodation in Rotorua.
Just days before, Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick revealed she was in self-isolation after returning from an overseas trip.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
tourism and businesses leaders in Rotorua where they had closed-door discussions about the impacts and plans around the coronavirus outbreak.
The impact of coronavirus on Rotorua's precious tourism and hospitality industry was likened by those attending as being like the devastating eruption of Mt Tarawera 134 years ago.
After applying for hundreds of rentals Mark and Rene'e Mackie finally were successful in their hunt for a home.
The couple had been living in their van and more recently a bus at different locations around Rotorua.
As the nationwide alert level 4 lockdown began, Rotorua mum Stacey Brell was forced to make the heartbreaking decision to leave her premature baby in hospital and stay at home to care for her two other children during lockdown.
Brell had to choose between staying in Rotorua Hospital to care for 8-week-old baby son Armani-John Selwyn or remain in Covid-19 isolation at home with the rest of her family.
Her partner, an essential worker, was on call and there was no one else besides her to look after their two other children, aged 18 months and 11 years.
The lockdown was also a chance to
unsung heroes.
Some essential workers chose to self-isolate away from children and partners and put their own health on the line every day to make sure everyone in the community, the majority strangers, could access everything they need while New Zealand was in lockdown.
Among them Rotorua truck driver Ricky Bishop, Four Square Koutu's checkout operator Manpreet Basra and the Salvation Army's Lieutenant Kylie Overbye.
Man now has the chance to build a 'productive' life after guns and ecstasy.