Weather Eye with John Maunder The ‘Maunder Minimum' is the name given to the period from 1645 to 1715 when the number of sunspots – ‘storms' on the sun – became almost zero. The period is named after...... Read More

Winston Watusi Music Plus This week let's have a look at next week. Live music continues apace. I've picked out three very different gigs of interest, one leaning Celtic, an international rock show, and a heaping helping...... Read More

Daniel Hutchinson From The Hutch Confessions are very important – they clear the air and help us  move forward. So, in order to help solve the country’s problems, I feel it’s important to ‘fess up to...... Read More

Todd Talks with Todd Muller National MP Another week, another shambles from this government. We’ve seen terrible housing statistics, failures at our border, horticulturalists struggling to get their fruit picked...... Read More

Nigel Tutt Chief Executive of Priority One Readers will no doubt have seen the government announcement a couple of weeks ago on steps to address New Zealand’s runaway housing market. This included methods to curb investors...... Read More

Jan Tinetti Labour MP On March 30, 2021, New Zealand received some confirmation that what we are doing for women is working. The World Economic Forum released its 2021 Global Gender Gap Report, analysing the gender equality gap...... Read More

Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz The start of the Bay of Plenty senior rugby season last weekend got Sideline Sid thinking what the local rugby scene looked like a century ago. Past papers provided...... Read More

Weather Eye with John Maunder Rainfalls for the month of March have been recorded in Tauranga since 1898 – except for 1904, 1908 and 1909. This graph below shows the range of rainfalls from a high of 504 mm in 1979, to a...... Read More

Winston Watusi Music Plus With Bay Dreams, One Love and more, Tauranga is getting a name as a festival city; but there's something unique about the Jazz Festival. It may be that it originated here, but that's not the only...... Read More

Daniel Hutchinson From The Hutch Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good. And there we have it - our travel bubble with Australia is complete...... Read More

Angie Warren-Clark Labour MP Happy Easter and what a fabulous weekend it’s been here in Tauranga Moana. Following the government’s recently announced Housing Package, just last week in the Bay of Plenty, we saw local...... Read More

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