Regional News from Tuesday, March 17th, 2026

Ōpōtiki rally driver Mike Young impressed on the international stage with an outstanding result at the XCR Sprint Cup in Thailand last weekend.

On Monday this week, a mains break occurred in Ōhope and another in Tāneatua last week, leaving many residents without water.

A petition from ten years ago has been reopened in the hopes that NZTA will complete the promised double lane Pekatahi Bridge before 2029.

Kiwis are being encouraged to rethink how they shop, cook and store food as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East threatens to push grocery and fuel prices higher.

Around 4:30 am, the volunteer fire brigade's siren sounded due to a “technical fault with the paging system.”

The Government is encouraging geothermal exploration with $50 million in funding for geothermal projects across the country, including projects in the Bay of Plenty. 

A flyover of the island yesterday, revealed low level eruptive activity has stopped, allowing the volcanic alert level to decrease.

Horizon Networks will be participating in a twelve month trial using 'gridADAPT' to analyse how their network would cope with increasingly severe weather in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.