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The Weekend Sun Rob Lemoto has come a long way since being a Sergeant in Tauranga.
The Sun shines in Niue I recently enjoyed a photo assignment on beautiful Niue Island, where our waitress Mele Tongia said she recognised me from the newspaper. I responded: “I’m not in the Niue newspaper” to which she replied: “No, I mean The Weekend Sun”.
She explained she had attended school in Katikati but recently moved to Niue with her family. We were invited to have lunch in their new home and it was a lovely experience. Mele is next to me in the photo, wearing the pink top. Thanks Mele.
Tauranga cop lands TV gig A friendly Tauranga face will grace television screens as the new frontman of one of New Zealand’s top crime shows. Detective Sergeant Rob Lemoto has big shoes to fill, taking over from Detective Inspector Graham Bell, who has been the face and host of ‘Police Ten 7’
Prime location. The very best in luxury living. The only lifestyle village in central Tauranga. The finest inner city retirement living? Yes indeed. Ladies and gentlemen, right now you can enjoy the elegance and the quality support care services at The Avenues for a very attractive price. So come on in, relax by our lovely fire and then take a tour of our first class facilities and living options. Superbly located opposite Tauranga’s Memorial Park and Harbour, and only moments from the city centre, The Avenues has a retirement lifestyle you’ll fall in love with.
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for 13 years. Graham announced his retirement from the show a couple of weeks ago but the crime programme continued to air and promised to debut a new frontman last night. Speaking to The Weekend Sun, Rob says he’s excited about his new role after auditioning for the presenter’s job a few weeks back. He jokes that he was probably the only one to offer bribes of crayfish and fishing trips to the crew piecing the audition tapes together. “I think the programme is a great way of letting the public in on what our team face on the front lines. “It’s also great that the same public get a chance to hold those engaged in criminal activity to account for their actions.” Rob has come a long way since growing up in South Auckland’s Manurewa – being inspired to join the police force after seeing police hold gangs to account when he was growing up. He has 20 years’ experience on the New Zealand Police Force, being a Te Puke community Constable, a Tauranga Police Sergeant and a Detective Sergeant working out of Tauranga South Police Station. And despite his new TV gig, Rob says he has no plans on moving from the Bay. “My family and I love the Bay and I’m a sworn member of the Tauranga Police, which is something I’m extremely proud of and don’t want to change. “Ten 7 is a great way of catching baddies and Graham and the team have already achieved some great success this year. “As we only have a few episodes left in this series, I’m able to take some leave during the week for when we shoot the ‘Crime of the Week’ and then return to my work in Tauranga as the officer in charge of the Child Protection Team, overseeing an experienced team of detectives who work closely with Child Youth and Family to ensure children identified as being at risk are safe, and that identified offenders are held to account.” By Letitia Atkinson
Free buses on Saturday If you’ve ever thought about taking the bus but never have, tomorrow is the ideal day to give it a go. Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s Bayhopper buses – the yellow buses in Tauranga and blue Whakatane to Ohope bus – and City-Ride buses in Rotorua are free for Saturday, September 20. Bay of Plenty regional councillor Lyall Thurston, who is chair of the Public Transport Sub-Committee, says they want to give the public the opportunity to try out the buses on a day when it was likely everyone had a reason getting out and about. “We realise there are a lot of reasons why people may have never used the Bayhopper and City-Ride buses, so we thought we’d remove one of the barriers and give people the opportunity to take the bus for free. It’s an easy way to get around.” Lyall says anyone thinking about heading into town, or using the buses to get to an election booth, just need to visit the www.baybus.co.nz website or call 0800 4 BAYBUS (0800 4 229 28) to find out their nearest bus route and timetable. “Tauranga and Rotorua passengers who know where they need to get to can use the Journey Planner feature on the Baybus website, which is simple and will tell you exactly which bus you need to take, when,” says Lyall. “We’ll be rolling this feature out to our Eastern Bay services soon.”