The annual Ngāti Porou Inter Marae Sports Festival, more commonly known as Ngāti Porou Pā Wars, will take place on January 3 at Whakarua Park in Ruatōria.
Pā Wars is celebrating its 30th anniversary since it began in 1995.
There will be more than 30 events across a broad range of sports and games, including chess, swimming, horse sports, pool, touch rugby, euchre, and many more.
The kaupapa of the festival includes strengthening whanaungatanga as Ngāti Porou, creating a fun, relaxed, and safe environment for whānau (mokopuna, tamariki, mātua and tīpuna) to play together, promoting healthy lifestyle practices, and as fundraising for the different marae.
The decision was made to cancel the 2025 Hikurangi Dawn Ceremony due to the weather.
Fire in the Sky lighting up the New Year in Gisborne
Walter Findlay Ltd Fire in the Sky will light up the city skyline again with an event that looks a little different this year, according to Gisborne District Council.
The Peel Street bridge will be closed to traffic from 10.30am on Wednesday to make way for “an even more epic stage and screen set up” the council said in a social media post.
“You can pack a picnic and find a spot on the riverbank, there’ll also be food vendors from 5.30pm,” the post read.
“Bounce City will be set up in Kelvin Park and music entertainment will start from 6pm.”
Fireworks will begin at 9.20pm.
Peel Street will be closed to vehicles from 10.30am to 12.30am on Wednesday, but pedestrians will still be able to cross.
Reads Quay will be closed from 3pm until 10pm to Lowe St.
Sporadic rain all week in New Year weather update
Tairāwhiti is set to kick off a damp New Year with a sporadically wet rest of the week.
The yellow heavy rain watch issued by MetService for the Wairoa district and Gisborne/Tairāwhiti south of Tolaga Bay was set to expire at 10pm on Tuesday.
MetService meteorologist Alec Holden said the rainfall in Gisborne would be “stop-start” until Saturday.
He said there would be the “odd shower” on New Year’s Day, but Thursday and Friday would see most precipitation drifting off over the ranges.
“Looking ahead you get a bit of a reprieve on the second and the third [of January]. That is not to say there aren’t going to be any showers, but it doesn’t look to be as bad as it has been,” Holden said.
He said a big southerly on Saturday will bring “a good bit” of rain once again, relatively evenly distributed across the entire region.
Winds in Gisborne were on a gradual easing trend over the next few days and, while there would be a few southerlies and south-westerlies around, Holden said they would not be notable.
“It’s a pretty stiff southerly, but other than that none of the winds between now and then are particularly notable.”
Temperatures were expected to hover around the summer average until Saturday for Gisborne, in the low to mid 20C range for daytime and about 13C overnight.
Chopper flies twice on Christmas Day
The crews of the Trust Tairāwhiti Eastland Rescue Helicopter had a late festive dinner on Christmas Day after carrying out two missions for the holiday.
The first at 10am was to a trauma at Tokomaru Bay, where the team flew the patient in stable condition to Gisborne Hospital.
The second was a mid-afternoon transfer of a patient in a serious condition from Gisborne to Waikato Hospital.
The team arrived back at the hangar after 8pm to join their night-shift colleagues for a special meal.
Those Christmas missions were two of five completed by the team in the seven days from Monday, December 23, with another two hospital transfers, a motor vehicle accident, and a trauma rounding out the dispatches for the week.
