Looking back at 2020

• Date: 07 January 2021
• Published date: 07 January 2021
• Publication title: Northland Age, The

3 — Shane Jones announces $5.6 million in government funding to make plans to link major Bay of Islands attractions by vintage steam trains and ferry a reality. Kaitaia pub owners unite to consider how they can demand a better standard of behaviour from some of their patrons.

7 — A company that is investing millions of dollars in avocados on the Aupōuri Peninsula says that investment is being jeopardised, and jobs are being lost, because the regional council is dragging its heels over granting water consents.

9 — Far North Holdings is applying for a consent to reclaim an area of seabed at Ōpua for a barge dock and boat ramp.

14 — Two Far North couples have bought the Awanui Hotel, and are breathing new life into it. There is widespread outrage after more than 100kg of rubbish is found in, and removed from, the Utakura River, which runs into the Hokianga Harbour.

16 — The Cavalli Fire Brigade is anticipating moving out of its shipping containers and into a purpose-built station thanks to $2.16 million in funding under the Government’s Covid-19 recovery plan. AFFCO is to pay almost $300,000 in fines and reparation as a result of a boiler explosion that left a worker with severe burns over most of his body two years ago.

17 — Torrential rain does significant damage to Far North roads, particularly the Mangamuka Gorge, which will be closed by slips for months (reopening temporarily in time for Christmas). Moerewa is especially hard-hit by flooding.

21 — A barn at Pakaraka is now believed to be New Zealand’s fifth-oldest building.

23 — The hot pools at Ngāwhā are about to reopen, five years after Top Energy bought the land for its geothermal power generation expansion and closed them. Locals on the Karikari Peninsula are working hard to protect and restore Puwkehe Beach, which has been badly damaged by ‘hoons’.

27 — More cash is handed out by Jones, this time $10.8 million for Kaitaia, part of which will pay for a long-awaited roundabout on the Matthews Ave/North Rd intersection, and $9 million for Kerikeri.

30 — A 64-year-old woman says she phoned the Kerikeri police station when she was threatened by a man, and was left on hold for 35 minutes.

August

4 — Two Kaitaia properties are gradually slumping into the old river bed between Matthews Ave and Kitchener St, the regional council, district council and EQC all denying that they have any responsibility for fixing it. Police are investigating a ‘nasty’ assault on a Kerikeri High School student, while in his class, by three young people.

5 — Poison is believed to behind the deaths of birds, including feral poultry, at the Kerikeri Basin.

6 — Te Rarawa has unveiled a pouwhenua at Waimahutahuta, Ahipara, a site that has been of great significance since Kupe’s day, more than a thousand years ago.

11 — Tuatua Tavern proprietor Eddie Bellas is going to the High Court in a bid to keep his on and off-licences, which will not be renewed when they expire in October. Doubtless Bay man Ian Swindells continues a family tradition of service when he is sworn as a Justice of the Peace.

12 — Long queues form outside Kaitaia Hospital for Covid-19 testing after the virus re-emerges in Auckland.

13 — The 55-year-old founder of an Auckland church has appeared in the Kaikohe District Court, admitting paying for sex with a 15-year-old.

18 — Hone Harawira says iwi-led road checkpoints may be revived if Auckland’s lockdown...