The Year In Review: February 2011 | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

The month of February could, perhaps, be renamed "the" month, given the way big events have come to populate the calendar at that time of the year.

On the first day of the month, it was international cricket at McLean Park, with a fair bit of excitement, although in the end it was the Black Caps who lost, by two wickets, with an over to spare, against Pakistan.

A few days later, the William Webb Ellis Trophy came to town on what was one of a variety of flag-waving events which preceded the eventual and long awaited two local matches in the trophy's Rugby World Cup. It has to be said, here, that, apparently, it was not the William Webb Ellis Trophy at all, just a replica, apparently.

Then on the second weekend it was the Mission Concert thing again, the vineyard venue packed with about 25,000 to see Sting (aka Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner CBE).

And then it was Art Deco Weekend, in this case living-on forever in the form of a few semi-viral YouTube clips of Aussie character Shaun Wayne, most notably an gimmicky interview with dressed-for-the-weekend Prime Minister John Key, in the Bay also for a three-day Treasury retreat. Earlier this week the Napier City promo clip had had 25,763 hits, about 117 up on three weeks earlier.

That was not the end of it, for on the last weekend Crowded House played to a crowded paddock.

By this time, most things were, however, being overshadowed by the tragedy that was the Christchurch earthquake which hit at 12.51pm on Tuesday, February 22, wrecking the garden city from the centre out.

It claimed 181 lives, the second biggest toll in a natural disaster in European settlement of New Zealand.

The worst had been 80 years and 19 days earlier, the Hawke's Bay quake of February 1931, which killed 256.

Despite the elapsing of eight decades, Napier and Hastings were equipped with knowledge and experience to help from the outset, and there were numerous examples of experts and volunteers doing their bit not only in Canterbury, but also at home in the Bay. The two cities also responded by hosting earthquake victims, including people unable to return to their own homes, to help relieve them of some of the stress of the calamity.

While much had been written about the rebuilding of Napier over the years, a display of much more recent engineering phenomenon was shown when a State Highway 2 viaduct was opened, crossing above the Matahorua Gorge Rd between Napier and Wairoa.

Wairoa itself was to figure in the news a couple of times, firstly when temperatures hit 35.4C on Waitangi Day, and secondly, somewhat less glamourously, when there was another shooting in the town. Again the spectre of the town's gang relationships was raised.

On the same weekend, Hastings racehorse Jimmy Choux was again doing his thing, winning the Waikato Guineas at Te Rapa, Hamilton, showing that after five-wins in five guineas races during the season he was a shoo-in just about every time he started. That took care of the colts.

Another winner was Napier teenager Breone Lay, who became the first Miss Hawke's Bay for several years. That took care of the fillies.

Little could be done about the early-February hot weather at the time, but Hawke's Bay Today did its bit when we learned the Bay was being bypassed by a near nationwide giveaway of the long-time ice-cream favourite, the Jelly-Tip.

A competition for the best Tip-Top moment won Gerry Townshend a trip to Auckland and lots of Jelly-Tips. It was the coolest yarn of all, relating how 46 years earlier he fell into a vat of semi-frozen pineapple juice at the factory.