Simon Bridges National Party MP simonbridges.co.nz A couple of weekends back, I had the pleasure of an afternoon at the races at the Tauranga Racecourse. I’m not a racing man but I’ve been going to this event, the...... Read More

Straight from city council A personal view, by Councillor Steve Morris As a kid, I admired Peter Blake’s round-the-world sailing. Every crewman was focussed on ‘making the boat go faster’. Each guy pulled his...... Read More

Nigel Tutt Chief Executive of Priority One The recent announcement about the opening of the two-way trans-Tasman travel bubble provides us with some interesting implications for the New Zealand economy. The travel bubble is the...... Read More

Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz Covid-19 has become the final nail in the countries daily newspapers coverage of local sport. Stuff had scythed through their ranks of sports journalists long...... Read More

Weather Eye with John Maunder Temperatures have been recorded in the Tauranga area at several sites during the last 107 years including the current Tauranga Airport site from June 1990. The graph shows details of the average daily...... Read More

Winston Watusi Music Plus  After a two-year build-up it’s here; jazz is in the air, everywhere you look around. Fingers crossed about the weather, and I hope everyone has fun. This week here, however, is a jazz-free...... Read More

Tamati Coffey Labour List MP I’m proud that the new $3.8 billion contestable Housing Acceleration Fund announced recently, as part of a package designed to build more houses faster, includes infrastructure funding for papakainga...... Read More

Todd Talks with Todd Muller National MP Some four years after this government promised to address the housing crisis, they have announced their new policy. What they have done, against their earlier promises to leave...... Read More

Daniel Hutchinson From The Hutch It was a huge relief for everyone when the giant container ship Ever Given finally slid out of the narrows of the Suez Canal this week. That was a hard squeeze, but at least it’s out of the...... Read More

Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz It is hard to believe that it is 50 years since the first running of the Japan Trophy race at Tauranga racecourse. What started life as the Bay of Plenty Japan...... Read More

Weather Eye with John Maunder The ocean drives the world’s weather and climate and anchors the global economy and food security. WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas says that this year’s World Meteorological Day...... Read More

Winston Watusi Music Plus Okay. Last column before the Jazz Festival arrives. It’s quite exciting... There is a veritable deluge of music about to flood the town, with more details being announced every day. That’s...... Read More

Daniel Hutchinson From The Hutch Mrs Pig was very tired and did not want to look after her three little pigs anymore. So, she freed up some equity in her Te Puna lifestyle block to provide a house deposit for each of them and told...... Read More

Straight from city council A personal view, by Councillor Steve Morris At a time when residents and businesses are being told to pay unprecedented rates rises for “essential” infrastructure, I can reveal the greatest...... Read More

Simon Bridges National Party MP simonbridges.co.nz For separated families and a tourism industry that is on its knees, the government’s inaction and uncertainty on opening the trans-Tasman bubble is now unacceptable. The...... Read More

Nigel Tutt Chief Executive of Priority One The last two weeks has seen a flurry of decisions from the newly-appointed commission at Tauranga City Council.  They have taken action on a number of projects, most notably the Memorial...... Read More

Jan Tinetti Labour MP A year ago, New Zealand went into lockdown. We stayed home and saved lives, and now our economy has bounced back faster than expected. A lot has changed in the past 12 months, but government’s top priorities...... Read More

Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz Four Western Bay of Plenty club cricket teams will get the chance to play on an international cricket ground this week. On Thursday evening, the Bay of Plenty Cricket...... Read More

Weather Eye with John Maunder The Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) is a standardized index based on the observed sea level pressure differences between Tahiti and Darwin, Australia. The SOI is a leading measure of the large-scale...... Read More