2022 recap: Looking back on a turbulent year of crises, COVID and extreme weather

The year 2022 felt like it was the year of crises. There was a cost of living crisis, a crime crisis, a health crisis and even a pothole crisis.

It was a turbulent year that saw the country crawl out of its isolated bubble and open up its borders as we edged closure to normality after a lonely two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We welcomed international visitors, new mayors and a new public holiday, and said our goodbyes to many Kiwi legends who passed away this year.

With the year fast drawing to a close, Newshub has decided to look back on 2022.

HEALTH

The country saw the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic as a sense of normality started to return following the end of restrictions and mandates. But not until after a fiery protest that saw the Parliament playground light up in flames.

The number two symbolises partnership and balance but 2022 brought what National leader Christopher Luxon called a "divided society". 

The social cohesion of New Zealand was fragmented as dangerous misinformation took a vicious grip over a vocal group of Kiwis.

In an escalation of the war on misinformation, a riot broke out on the forecourt of the Wellington Beehive which saw around 100 people arrested. The protest saw threats against politicians and journalists, and attacks on police officers. 

A report from New Zealand intelligence agencies found it was likely a minority of protesters intended to carry out acts of "extreme violence".

While the country hasn't seen a significant violent attack in relation to the pandemic since the protest that ended in March, misinformation and disinformation continue to be a challenging after-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

As the country said goodbye to COVID, we unwillingly welcomed a new virus.

The World Health organisation declared monkeypox a global public health emergency in July as an outbreak of the infectious disease grew in the West.

It wasn't long after New Zealand reported its first case of monkeypox, but instead of thousands of cases, like overseas countries were reporting, the wave in NZ was just over a couple of dozen.

The small scale of monkeypox was good news for health workers who were already struggling under a stretched healthcare system.

The country's health care crisis saw a shortage of staff across many sectors, especially emergency departments and aged care facilities, as well as ballooning wait times for procedures including cancer screenings.

Nurses and Allied Health Workers walked off the job to strike for better pay and working conditions. And in December, following months of criticism from the sector, the Government finally added nurses and midwives to the straight-to-residence pathway. A move that will hopefully deliver more nurses to the critically stretched workforce. 

Mental health wait times continued to be high and despite billions of dollars of funding, no new acute mental health beds have been added since Labour came into power five years ago.

But much to health workers' dismay, Health Minister Andrew Little refused to say the health system was in crisis.

ECONOMY

Kiwi families were hit hard this year by the relentless cost of living crisis as monstrous inflation saw just about everything increase in price.

Annual inflation reached a three-decade high in 2022, peaking at 7.3 percent in the June quarter.

The country saw petrol prices rise so high the Government had to step in and provide tax relief and half-price transport to ease the pain at the pump. 

But it wasn't just petrol prices draining money from Kiwi's bank accounts, food prices rose to a whopping 14-year high and many Kiwis struggled to keep up with their electricity and insurance costs. While average wages did rise it wasn't enough to compete with soaring inflation. 

The only thing that seemed to be getting cheaper was house prices, which isn't exactly a positive if you bought a house in the last few years.

While house prices started falling from their pandemic peak, servicing a house became more and more out of reach (sorry first home buyers).

To try and rein in inflation the Reserve Bank (RBNZ) hiked up the Official Cash Rate (OCR) again and again. 

The RBNZ lifted the OCR so much that its governor had to come out and apologise to New Zealanders for deliberately engineering a recession to slow consumer spending. 

The economy is expected to contract in 2023 which should see the country's low unemployment rate rise.

The mumbles of the dreaded 'R' word getting louder, the economic storm is looking likely to continue to hit the country in 2023. 

CRIME

A crime epidemic swept the country with businesses at the forefront of destruction.

Ramraids dominated the headlines as businesses grappled time after time with vehicles smashing into their storefronts and offenders looting their shops.

But behind the ramraid wave, mainly youths were at the wheel, with some offenders under 10 years old.

Political parties suggested ankle bracelets, social interventions and harsher penalties for young offenders as the blame for what pushed children into crime jumped between the individuals, the parents, the Justice system, the Government and society.

The police went public with their new task force called Operation Cobalt which aims to crack down on gangs. Since then the police have disrupted large drug operations, seized items from guns to stolen property and arrested countless offenders.

However, despite these efforts, many Kiwis started to feel unsafe in New Zealand.

Businesses and workers described living in a "constant state of fear" as they felt crime and anti-social behaviour were becoming more prominent.

Their fears came true when a diary worker was tragically killed during an aggravated robbery in Auckland.

Janak Patel, 34, was allegedly stabbed to death during a robbery at a dairy in Sandringham.

Patel's death sparked country-wide protests demanding a tougher response to crime from the Government. 

Another tragic case shocked the country after an Auckland family made the grisly discovery of human remains inside suitcases they bought at a storage locker at an auction.

The bodies were identified as two primary school-aged children. The mother of the children has been arrested and extradited to New Zealand on murder charges.

CLIMATE

To say the country experienced some wet and wild weather in 2022 is an understatement. Mother nature came in full force in 2022 bringing floods, tornadoes and snow.

A state of emergency was issued in the Buller District after the West Coast region was lashed by record rainfall in February.

Severe winds, heavy rain and flooding caused chaos across the country in July, cutting off access to Lake Ōhau on Otago. But that wasn't the last of the flooding, severe weather hit the Nelson Tasman region causing record flooding. The region suffered severe damage that is estimated to take years to repair. The West Coast and Marlborough regions were also hit by flooding and damage.

But severe flooding wasn't the only weather event to strike New Zealand, a few tornadoes ripped through the country this year.

Parts of the country also woke up to snow in October for the first time in decades. 

Snow had settled at sea level in some parts of Christchurch, for the first time in 53 years. Dunedin residents made snowmen and Wellington also experienced snow. The frequent extreme weather events were a reminder of the effects of climate change.

Alarming new statistics revealed in May showed New Zealand's sea level could rise 30cm in the next 10 to 20 years - greatly outpacing the global prediction of by 2060.

In just 10 or 20 years many homes, roads and rail lines will need to be raised, protected with sea walls or abandoned.

Global leaders met at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) with many hopeful the world's most powerful will come together to take action towards achieving the collective climate goal.

The climate summit saw countries adopt a landmark deal to set up a fund to help poorer countries being battered by climate disasters - but it did not boost efforts to tackle the emissions causing them. While a deal was struck, the summit saw little else done with no agreement for tougher emissions reductions.

However, New Zealand was the movers and shakers in the emissions field, becoming the first  country to develop a system for pricing agricultural emissions.

The 'fart tax' the Government proposed will see farmers start paying levies on emissions from 2025.

But everybody was not on board. Unhappy farmers walked off their paddocks and drove into the big smoke in protest of the proposed emission reduction plan. 

They called it the "worst assault on New Zealand farmers and rural communities in a generation".

WORLD

Looking overseas and it is safe to say 2022 was a whirlwind.

Scandals and headline-dominating controversies rocked the world including former US President Donald Trump's home being raided by FBI agents and US rapper Kayne West under fire for anti-semitic tirades.

The Royal Family wasn't immune to having their skeleton aired this year. In February, Prince Andrew financially settled a sexual assault case filed against him by Virginia Giuffre and in December Prince Harry and Meghan dropped their Netflix series which accused the British media and Royal Family of racism.

The world continues to be shaken by the gut-wrenching attack on Ukraine which saw missiles rain across the country and monstrous threats of using nuclear weapons from Russia.

On February 24, Russia launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine in what was a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Months later the war still ravages Ukraine and the impacts are devastating. It is estimated over 40,000 people have been killed and approximately 14 million Ukrainians have been displaced in Europe's biggest refugee crisis since WWII.

New Zealand joined the many countries that condemned Russia's attack by imposing harsh sanctions and supplying Ukraine with aid.

In 2022, we said goodbye to the beloved Queen Elizabeth II.

Her Majesty passed away on September 8, in her Balmoral Estate in Scotland.

The world grieved the longest-reigning British monarch and thousands of Brits lined up for hours, some even days, to file past Her Majesty's coffin while she lay in state at Westminster Hall.

As we said farewell to the Queen we crowned our new sovereign leader King Charles III.

At age 73, Charles became the oldest person to accede to the British throne. 

His Majesty's official proclamation took place on September 10. 

Iran was rocked by the biggest protest in years following the suspicious death of Mahsa Amini who died in hospital a few days after she was detained for not wearing her hijab correctly.

A wave of unrest swept the country as violent protests against the state restrictions on women's freedom erupted in Iranian cities.

Hundreds of people, mostly protesters, were reportedly killed by Iranian security forces and Iranian lawmakers vowed severe punishments for protesters, including executions.

In an open letter, female world leaders, including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, have called on United Nations Member States to remove Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women.  

Ending on a positive note, a British teenager with incurable cancer is now leukaemia-free after being the "first human patient" to receive successful treatment from base editors.