Tania Tapsell says she is “honoured” and “humbled” to have been re-elected as Rotorua Mayor for a second term.

Tapsell received the call on Saturday from Rotorua Lakes Council chief executive Andrew Moraes while she was at home with her family, a contrast to the party atmosphere when she was first elected in 2022.

She later presented an opening address at the Tompkins Wake Rotorua Business Awards.

“We worked really hard in the past three years,” she told the attendees.

“I give you my heartfelt acknowledgements and thanks for re-electing me to be your mayor.”

Tapsell’s first term was dominated by big-ticket issues such as emergency housing, rates and the Lake Tarawera sewerage scheme.

At times, it was a fractious three years, with Tapsell the victim of online abuse and harassment. But she told Local Democracy Reporting, it “was worth it” as she believed she and the council were “making Rotorua a better place.”

Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell, pictured at the Rotorua Business Awards after being re-elected on Saturday to lead the city for another term. Photo / Alan Gibson

“It’s no surprise the past three years were really challenging for our community, and unfortunately people saw some of the hate and threats I received,” she said.

“I’m so grateful for the support from our locals to continue leading the council and our community.”

Tapsell’s victory was a landslide, with the combined votes of the other four mayoral candidates – Don Paterson, Robert Lee, Haehaetu Barrett and Takeina Fraser – still nearly 3000 behind her tally in the initial progress results.

Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell celebrates after being re-elected for a second term.

She believed that margin, along with maintaining most of the last council’s elected members, was recognition of the work done over the past three years.

“After the last election 70% of our table was brand new, so the community wanted change,” she said. “I’m quite confident that from these election results, they believe we’ve been able to deliver that.”

Tapsell said the win was extra special considering her family’s “long history” in the city – both through her Te Arawa and Danish ancestry.

“It’s very meaningful to my wider family that we get to be here, helping to give back to the people and the place we care about.”

She also praised some of the returning councillors, including Deputy Mayor Sandra Kai Fong, and was “very excited” at the injection of some fresh voices.

“We’ll have some new energy in there too, alongside the really well-learned and [wise] councillors such as Gregg Brown and Fisher Wang ... It’s going to be a great team.”

Tapsell will be joined on council by re-elected general ward councillors Kai Fong, Brown, Wang, Paterson, Lee, and the rural ward’s Karen Barker. Ben Sandford is a fresh face on the general ward while former councillor Merepeka Raukawa-Tait returns on the Māori ward alongside another newbie, Te Rika Temara-Benfell, and New Zealand’s longest-serving councillor Trevor Maxwell.

Conan O’Brien and Rawiri Waru have lost their seats according to progress results, but it is tight between them and Lee and Raukawa-Tait on the general and Māori wards respectively.

A clearer picture is expected after preliminary results, due Monday, are released.

Ben Sandford. Photo / Andrew Warner

Sandford, who previously ran against Tapsell for Rotorua’s mayoralty in 2022, received his call at 2am. The former Winter Olympian is in Germany as part of his work with the World Anti-Doping Agency but he said it was “nice to be woken up” to the news.

“I’m looking forward to being involved with the council and making a positive contribution.”

He said he had “a good relationship” with Tapsell.

“I’m sure we’ll work well together.

“I am looking forward to what the council is going to be working on and getting involved and representing the community.”

New Māori ward councillor Te Rika Temara-Benfell. Photo / NZME

Temara-Benfell becomes the council’s youngest sitting member. Speaking to Local Democracy Reporting from Australia’s Gold Coast on a post-campaign vacation, he said he was “humbled” to have come out on top of the Māori ward voting and expressed his “gratitude” to his voters and iwi.

“I’ll come with my best foot forward,” he said. “I’m looking forward to working with all of the councillors across the table and I’m really excited.”

Voter turnout is trending down from the last local election, sitting at 37.5%, compared with 46.5% in 2022.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council

Newcomers Raj Kumar and Anna Grayling will be the Rotorua Constituency councillors on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, ousting long-serving councillor Lyall Thurston.

Allan Iwi Te Whau is set to be the new Ōkūrei Māori constituency councillor, meaning Te Taru White loses his seat.

Progress results for Tauranga’s constituency have Stuart Crosby, Tim Maltby, Glenn Dougal, Kate Graeme and Andrew von Dadelszen taking the five seats available, John Scrimgeour and Ken Shirley taking Western Bay and Malcolm Campbell and Sarah van der Boom taking Eastern Bay.

Marewa Karetai and Matemoana McDonald have won the Kōhi and Mauao Māori seats, respectively.

Across the region

Based on progress results, all Bay of Plenty mayors have been re-elected, including James Denyer in Western Bay of Plenty, Faylene Tunui in Kawerau and David Moore in Ōpōtiki.

But the race in Whakatāne is on a knife-edge, with incumbent Victor Luca holding a slight lead over Nándor Tánczos in the progress results.

Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in the UK for eight years.

– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.