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Aisling Symes - Source: ONE News -
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More often than not the news stories you remember most as the year draws to a close are the events which bring despair or heartache.
This year the following events did just that.
Little girl lost
In October 2009, we searched for a little girl lost.
Two-year-old
Aisling Symes consumed our news reports and minds
for over a week.
As her disappearance, the subsequent search and then the realisation that she wouldn't come home unfolded before us, we watched her family's pain in the glare of the media spotlight.
We watched and read of her family's anguish, their public pleas for her safe return, the search team's progress and in the end the wavering voice and solemn words of inquiry head Inspector Gary Davey as he confirmed that they had found her little body in a storm water drain, just metres from where she was last seen.
Finally, we watched as Aisling's little coffin, draped in an Irish and New Zealand flag, stood in a west Auckland church covered in soft toys sent by strangers from around New Zealand who just wanted to help.
Wrong place, wrong time
Early this year, a sequence of events ended with a flurry of
shots and the death of a young father on Auckland's northwestern
motorway.
Innocent bystander, 17-year-old Halatau Naitoko, was covering a shift for his mother for their family courier business, when the shooting drama unfolded. He was confronted by a drug fuelled and armed man being hunted by police. Halatau was subsequently felled by a police bullet in the crossfire.
"The blood of an innocent boy has been shed," said one of the ministers in front of thousands of mourners at Halatua's traditional Tongan funeral .
His mother wept as she said goodbye to her son. She described him as courageous, caring and deeply loving. She has had a new son since then, and named him Halatau.
Australia ravaged by bush fires
The Australia bush fires, early in the year, etched into our minds
images of burnt and charred landscapes. We saw houses and
livelihoods consumed by the fires, we saw anguished expressions on
countless faces.
Our hopes were lifted by tales of survival, of stories of kindness and humanity, but scenes of despair prevailed.
Almost 200 lives were lost in Australia's worst bushfire in history.
Weeks after the devastating Black Saturday firestorm we watched as our neighbours came to terms with rebuilding their razed homes and shattered lives.
Almost one year on it seems lessons have been learnt, new communication and warning measures are in place and there is greater public awareness as the new season of bush fires approaches.
However as unimaginable as it seems, there looks to be a consensus that with weather being out of human control, that Australia's Black Saturday may not be a once-in-a-lifetime tragedy.
Tsunami devastates Samoa
In September, we witnessed a disaster unfold in Samoa, the
island nation left reeling after a devastating
8.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami.
Samoan PM Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi described the event as an "unimaginable tragedy." "So much has gone. So many people are gone," he said at the time.
We watched the devastating images on screen, families and rescue workers fishing bloated corpses from the South Pacific and pulling bodies, tiny and big, from the mud and twisted rubble.
Almost 200 people vanished, swallowed up by the tsunami.
As the death tolls kept rising, we learnt that whole families were killed, livelihoods vanished, hope was fast disappearing.
We heard the story of Ben Taufua, who lost 14 family members. He helped lay them all to rest, determined to bury his father, sisters, nephews and nieces at home in Lalomanu.
"Whatever the future brings, we will just have to survive today," he said at the time.
The tsunami exposed the vulnerability of the Samoan environment, but also the resilience of its people.
Pandemic comes to NZ
The swine flu outbreak in April had the whole world in a spin and
little old New Zealand was no exception. As a nation we had been
observers of the likes of bird flu and SARS, rolling out the safety
precuations but never having the viruses cross our borders.
But with the confirmation that 10 Rangitoto College students had tested positive for Influenza A , we realised this time we weren't going to be immune (pardon the pun).
The flu, which was treatable with Tamiflu, initially led to people being quarantined while they or family members were treated. But as the flu spread in the community health authorities dropped the compulsory quarantine and moved from a strategy of control rather than prevention.
In total swine flu has killed 10,582 people globally in 2009 , 20 of those are New Zealanders.
Overall, rates of the virus remain at a low level in New Zealand but the Ministry of Health is actively reviewing its response to it and preparing for an anticipated upsurge in 2010.
Napier under seige
For three days in May the residents of Napier
lived in fear of gunman Jan Molenaar, who killed
policeman Len Snee and injured two other officers and a neighbour
just outside his home.
The tragedy happened when the officers had been executing a routine search warrant at the house.
Police had to cordon off the entire house and a large area around it as Molenaar had high powered firearms and explosives in his house. The army and their LAVs were bought in and the Napier that ONE News' cameras showed the nation looked more like a war zone than the sunny east coast town we know and love.
Following the end of the seige it was learned that Molenaar had in fact killed himself on the Friday, around 24 hours into the seige, but with the amount of explosives and potential for booby traps around the house police played it safe. The siege officially ended on the Saturday, around lunchtime.
