1999

The mystery of who bludgeoned Oscar Henry (Christopher Brown) continued into the following year as Fergus Kearney (Paul Ellis) and Minnie Crozier (Katrina Devine) were both suspected of the crime. While Oscar languished in a coma, Dr. Mackenzie Choat (Ingrid Park) began acting strangely even though she and Lionel were now engaged. Nurse Caroline Buxton (Tandi Wright) immediately became suspicious but backed off when Ellen told her that Oscar had raped Minnie and that Mackenize had supported Minnie.
While on a weekend vacation with Luke, Lionel and Mackenzie decided to elope, but shortly after their wedding, Lionel discovered several large sums of cash in Mackenzie's bag. Mackenzie confessed it was the money Oscar had stolen from the clinic and Lionel realised that Mackenzie had bludgeoned Oscar. He fled from Mackenzie and was swept off some rocks at a beach. His body was never found.
Burying her feelings for Rangi Heremaia (Blair Strang), Donna Heka embarked on a flirtation with the married Dr. John Harlan. John Harlan was CEO of Central and Frank as acting Shortland Street boss had brought him in to help out the clinic in the afteermath of Oscar's fraud. A stunned Rachel quickly discovered that her father had had an affair with John's wife many years before. When john found out, he bitterly dumped his wife and went straight to Donna's, where they embarked on an affair.
Meanwhile Rangi dated Vani. Vani eventually managed to forgive Mike for what had happened to her previous boyfriend. Rangi supported Vani when her schizophrenic brother Haresh 'Hari' Naran went missing. When they finally found him, they had another trauma to deal with as Rangi soon had to take in his daughter, Tasha for a while.
Tasha eventually went back to her mother Terry. Rangi was then stunned to learn that Vani was actually betrothed to someone else in an arranged marriage. Rangi went to befriend Krish Rajan, Vani's fiance and ended up posing as his personal trainer. Rangi pushed Krish too hard, which ended up exasperating his heart condition. When Vani learned what had happened, she went ahead with her arranged marriage to Krish and left Shortland Street. Sometime later, Rangi and Donna were embarrassed when everybody discovered that they were related (since everybody knew about their previous affair), but everyone was understanding.
Early in 1999, the Crombies were rocked by the news that youngest son Matthew 'Maddy' Crombie had leukaemia. Maddy underwent treatment, and eventually a bone marrow donor was found in the form of eldest Crombie son Jordan. Earl also returned after his son got sick. Moira later discovered that Jordan was gay, and while she initially did not accept her son's homosexuality, she eventually grew to accept him for who he was.
While on a weekend vacation with Luke, Lionel and Mackenzie decided to elope, but shortly after their wedding, Lionel discovered several large sums of cash in Mackenzie's bag. Mackenzie confessed it was the money Oscar had stolen from the clinic and Lionel realised that Mackenzie had bludgeoned Oscar. He fled from Mackenzie and was swept off some rocks at a beach. His body was never found.
Nick and Waverley were preparing to get married after they discovered that Roger had anotherwife and his marriage to Waverley was illegal. However, Roger ended up returning to town in an effort to explain himself and Waverley slept with him. Nick forgave Waverley for her indiscretion, but couldn't forgive her when she cut all of his hair off. The two broke up.
Mackenzie became increasingly unhinged after Lionel's death and initially sought comfort by sleeping with Frank who was despondent over Rachel's continuing love for Daniel. When Josie and Luke ran away, they went to the church in which Lionel and Mackenzie were married where they made wedding vows to each other before having sex. Fergus eventually found them and persuaded them to return to Ferndale. Mackenzie then resorted to drugging Luke in order to keep him near her. Mackenzie also told Josie that Luke had only used her for sex. Caroline was suspicious of what Mackenzie was doing , but noone believed her and she was fired from the clinic. Caroline retaliated by bringing Oscar back to Shortland Street in order to unnerve Mackenzie. Eventually Luke and Josie got back together. Josie announced that she was pregnant, so they got married (This time it was legal) and went to live with Luke's mother. It was later revealed that Josie gave birth to a baby boy.
Upon their return, Ellen and David began seeing each other again. Fergus eventually grew tired of the way that his father was treating Bridget and so told her the truth himself. Bridget was upset and immediately decided to leave town.
began an affair with the recently returned Greg Feeney. Soon afterwards, Mackenzie realised Oscar was faking his coma and had a final showdown with him in his hospital ward. She managed to overpower him, and then set off a bomb in his room. Mackenzie then fled town soon afterwards with wads of cash but she was double-crossed by bad boy Greg and ended up penniless.
Fergus helped Minnie deal with her rape trauma and the two briefly reunited. However, their relationship ended for good when Minnie discovered that Fergus was cheating on her. Minnie's next relationship ended in the same way, making Minnie decide to use men for all she could get.
Earl was killed in a drink-driving accident, leaving Moira a widow. Soon afterwards, Shelley also left town to head to Germany on an exchange programme. However, Moira's grief was soon tempered by the return of her former flame Dean. By the end of 1999, the two decided that they were in love.
Caroline Buxton became engaged to Dr Al Dubovsky but broke off the engagement as she had fallen for her bridesman Dr Laura Hall. They were happy for a couple of months when Caroline's ex-boyfriend Greg Feeney returned to Ferndale and swept her away on his motorbike.
Ellen and David were happy to be together once more but their relationship soon suffered a serious blow when it was found that David was suffering from an illness that would cost him his sight. David's condition worsened, and he decided to retire to the Hawkes Bay. Ellen went with him.
By the end of 1999, Donna had briefly reconciled with her ex-husband Joe Heka, but soon realised it was Rangi that she still cared for. Donna then made the shocking discovery that she was the product of an affair and that she and Rangi were not brother and sister after all. However by this time Rangi was involved in a relationship with Janet Maxwell.
*Ben Goodall moved to Ferndale sometime between this year and 2009.