Gate Pa gets first frost in years on the one night the whole suburb left the frost cloth in the shed

Gate Pa got a frost on Thursday morning, the first anyone can remember. It landed on the one night the whole suburb had decided frost cloth was a Canterbury problem.

By 7am Cameron Road was a line of people scraping windscreens with Eftpos cards, library cards and one Pak'nSave receipt. Lemon trees from the hospital end to the shops had their leaves curled up like they'd just seen the rates bill. Washing left out overnight came in stiff enough to lean against the house.

Lorna Pettigrew, 71, moved up from Hornby in 2019 "specifically so I would never do this again". She sold her frost cloth at a garage sale in February. "Bloke gave me four dollars for it. Four. And I thought, right, that's it, we're a sunshine family now. Then I open the curtains and it's, well, it's Hornby, isn't it. It's Hornby with a worse view of the hospital."

The only covered car on her street belongs to Des Haumaha, two doors down. Des puts a duvet over his Corolla every night of the year "because you don't know, do you". He has reportedly been standing on his driveway since 6.30am saying nothing, which a neighbour reckoned was worse than if he'd said something. Across the road a man found a stack of flyers for Papamoa sections frozen to his dash. He was last seen trying to scrape "SEA VIEWS FROM $1.2M" off the glass with a credit card.

MetService confirmed the frost had been "in the forecast". The word "frost" had appeared in grey, under a sun icon, on a part of the page nobody in the Bay of Plenty has ever scrolled to.

STATEMENT FROM TAURANGA CITY COUNCIL

Tauranga City Council is aware of community concerns regarding the temperature event in the Gate Pa area on Thursday.

It should be noted that frost is not a service delivered by Council. Frost is not scheduled by Council. Enquiries regarding its timing should be directed to the agency responsible.

Council does not hold a stock of frost cloth and has never indicated that it would. Residents who disposed of frost cloth before relocating to Tauranga did so at their own discretion. Council was not consulted on those decisions.

Options are being explored. A timeframe for the exploration of options will be communicated once a timeframe has been identified.

Council notes that some residents have chosen to express their views via signage on private fences. Council reminds residents that the frost did not read these signs and, in the interests of consistency, nor will Council.

Council thanks residents for their patience, which it is confident will continue.