This year Tairāwhiti Gisborne showcased exactly why it is the home of Rhythm and Vines. Warm weather and mostly sunny skies graced the region over the three-day festival period allowing festival-goers to claim their spot and be part of Aotearo...
THIS WEEK No Cigar After an epic run of shows in the UK and Europe, No Cigar are hitting the road again with 16 shows across NZ and Australia this summer. They will perform their brand new album The Great Escape, as well as many of the old...
The journey from nowhere to an Olympic gold medal is a tale as old as time. Just as well worn, but far less explored, are the stories about great athletes who realise they can’t make it anywhere unless they have a way to bankroll the trip. The...
DOME CINEMA Breakfast at Tiffany’s Romantic comedy-drama starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard, based on Truman Capote’s novella about the relationship of high-society escort Holly Golightly and kept writer Paul Varjak. Directed by Blake...
“Nothing untoward, which was great” is how St John ambulance Tairāwhiti operations manager Shane Clapperton summed up the final night of the Rhythm and Vines Festival. He praised his team for the work they did over the four days. The ambulance...
A Lotto player from the East Coast had a nice windfall to end 2023 with a $200,000 win in Saturday night’s draw. The winning ticket had not been claimed as of yesterday. The ticket shared the First Division prize on Saturday night. It was bought...
Some Waiapu River valley residents are being driven from their homes this summer as an unprecedented amount of silt, generated by storms over the past two years, still suffocates the local landscape. Dust from those silt deposits is constantly being...
They came, they partied, they left. The population of Gisborne swelled by many thousands between December 29 and January 1 for the 21st Rhythm and Vines festival. They jammed the roads and the cafes and enjoyed the best of our weather
Gisborne’s beaches drew the crowds on Saturday and Sunday as temperatures climbed close to 30 degrees. Lifeguards at the three local clubs counted their blessings there was no appreciable swell. Hordes of R&V festival-goers, other visitors and...
Tairāwhiti Police have praised the thousands who attended the Rhythm and Vines music festival, but were frustrated at the number drink-driving on New Year’s Day morning as they left the district. They were also unhappy about the number of people...
The occupants of two cars that collided on Bushmere Road on Friday afternoon were lucky to escape serious injury, with four of them taken to hospital with minor to moderate injuries. It happened at around 5pm at the Bloomfield Road corner. “All...
Moving from a cramped building to new premises in Gladstone Road has been described as the highlight of the year for the Gisborne-East Coast Cancer Society in their 2023 Annual Report. The society has received comments from the community “and...
A somewhat forgettable 2023 ended on a high note for this district with thousands of people celebrating the new year at two hugely popular events — the final night of Rhythm & Vines on New Year’s Eve and Findlay’s Fire in the Sky fireworks...
Where are our councillors in all this?? We are almost a month into the Government’s 100-day plan and I am writing as a concerned Māma and member of our community to express my deep disappointment at the lack of voice exhibited by all of our...
It’s always dangerous territory to enter when a politician seems to start truly believing in their own spin, as it can have the unintended consequence of portraying the politician as being just a tiny bit thick. Take for example Finance Minister...
I would love to congratulate Alison Crawford on her New Year Honours award — well overdue, may I say. If anyone deserves this award, Alison does. She has worked tirelessly for the Country Women’s Institute. The institute was one of the biggest...
Doesn’t the knighting of Trevor Mallard show what a joke the New Year Honours really are? He’s a thug, a bully and a ticket scalper, and New Zealand is rewarding him for being so. He even falsely accused a parliamentary staffer of being a rapist...
Re: Costs that deliver value, December 21 letter by Niall Robertson, national coordinator for The Rail Advocacy Collective. Niall, all you are doing with your campaign — like Gillian Ward and the Gisborne Rail Action Group — is costing the tax...
A happy ending to a rescue drama on Friday night that involved two girls trapped by the rising tide on Tuamotu Island off Sponge Bay, after they were successfully plucked from the island by surf lifeguards. The emergency services were alerted at...
Festival-goers, holiday-makers, Christmas and the summer season can all mean a lot more foot traffic at our supermarkets. “Our team starts to plan for the holidays around October time,” says Four Square Wainui Road owner and manager Sam Wanklyn...
Police have been rapt with the performance of drivers, both local and visitors, when it comes to drink-driving so far this New Year/Christmas period. Tairāwhiti area police commander, acting Inspector Daniel Kirk, said the drink-drive rate had not...
It has been 50 years since the first novel written by a Māori author was released to the world, which started a lifelong journey of writing for Gisborne-born Witi Ihimaera. “Tangi”, the first novel written by a Māori author to ever be...
Predicted top temperatures of 29 degrees today and 28 tomorrow with forecast fine weather have surf lifeguards bracing themselves for beach invasions by the thousands of young visitors to the district. The Gisborne and Tolaga Bay surf lifesaving...
Tolaga Bay firefighter and Civil Defence volunteer, marae kaumatua, radio station founder and funeral and wedding celebrant Eruera (Eru) Kaiwai receives the Queen’s Service Medal in the New Year Honours list. He receives the award for services to...
Being named in the New Year Honours for his services to Māori music is more about the kaupapa of Māori music rather than himself, says Tama Waipara (Ngāti Ruapani, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Porou). He has been appointed a member of the New Zealand...
When Lieutenant Commander Makoare (Mark) Kohupara Te Kani was posted to the Cook Islands in January 2020 as a maritime surveillance adviser with the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN), he expected to travel all over the Pacific. But just weeks into the...
When Alison Crawford received a letter in the mail advising her she was on the New Year Honours list to receive the Queen’s Service Medal, she threw it out. “Those scammers are even targeting Queen’s Services now,” she told her daughter...
Rhythm and Vines is in full swing, with festival director Kieran Spillane saying it was great that every year the Gisborne community was able to grow into a much larger family to celebrate the New Year together. “It’s even more special that this...
Puketoro Station inland from Tokomaru Bay will stage its eighth annual on-farm sale on Tuesday, January 9 with 6000 sheep, 700 15-month-old steers and 40 cows with calves at foot on offer. The auction starts at midday that day, at 2754 Ihungia Road...
Every year has some sort of significance by which people can remember it and 2023 will live in people’s memories as the one where it never stopped raining. Most people throughout New Zealand but especially in this district and Hawke’s Bay, will...
Josiah Brown, Maxim Institute The old adage that “crime doesn’t pay” appears less tenable than it once did. It seems this “truth” is relative, one that depends on the presence and function of certain structures to make lawlessness...
Clive Bibby The editor’s portrayal of the tumultuous last 12 months in this country as something that will have repercussions we may not like is a deluded interpretation of events that were entirely predictable. What does he expect the voters to...
Re: How climate crisis hit home in 2023, December 28 story. Indeed, scientists have been warning us for decades but few seem to take notice and virtually none are making the lifestyle changes needed. The most disturbing parts of this report are the...
2024 is closing in on us fast. I thought it appropriate to share a little of my poetic brain scrapings. If only things were different, what a wondrous world we’d see Where everyone got on, in peace and harmony If only things were different, great...