The Awanui crew who picked up the Most Beautiful Tiny Town in the country award at the Keep NZ Beautiful Awards on Thursday — Carol Berghan (Ngāi Takoto), Suzie Clark (Awanui project manager/revitalisation working group), Desley Austen (Awanui community champion), Felicity Foy (FNDC councillor/revitalisation working group), Wallace Rivers (Ngāi Takoto), Rose Vazey (Ngāi Takoto), Laurie Andrews (Awanui community champion), and Adele Gardner (Te Hiku community board/revitalisation working group).
The Awanui crew who picked up the Most Beautiful Tiny Town in the country award at the Keep NZ Beautiful Awards on Thursday — Carol Berghan (Ngāi Takoto), Suzie Clark (Awanui project manager/revitalisation working group), Desley Austen (Awanui community champion), Felicity Foy (FNDC councillor/revitalisation working group), Wallace Rivers (Ngāi Takoto), Rose Vazey (Ngāi Takoto), Laurie Andrews (Awanui community champion), and Adele Gardner (Te Hiku community board/revitalisation working group).
Awanui was still buzzing yesterday and already planning how it could take advantage of being named the Most Beautiful Tiny Town in the country.
Last Thursday night a contingent from Awanui, population less than 400, was given the accolade at the annual Keep NZ Beautiful Awards in Wellington, where the town was a finalist in two categories — the Tiny Town and the Best Loo category for its colourful Te Hiku toilet block.
Awanui was pitted against Leigh north of Auckland in the Tiny Town category, but came out tops, partly thanks to its beautification projects and community pride. However, the town’s toilet block lost out to the loos at Ōkere Falls Scenic Reserve Wharepaku in Rotorua.
The win came just five days after the town celebrated itself in its annual Awanui Day, when thousands of people descended on Awanui. Awanui Day is built around the Northland Riders’ Motorcycle Club’s Treble T Poker Run to Cape Reinga, when up to 600 bikes take part.
The award judges commended the Te Hiku revitalisation project for reinvigorating Awanui not only for its residents, but for the many visitors it receives as the “Nexus to the North”.
The Te Hiku Open Spaces Revitalisation Project got $7 million PGF funding, which was also spent revitalising Kaitāia and Ahipara with 81 infrastructure, art and placemaking plans. A key focus of the project was to bring together community groups and businesses, and to place Te Hiku iwi at the centre of the decision-making to ensure the right projects were delivered to the right places, say those involved.
Awanui welcomes visitors, and that congeniality has won it the title of the Most Beautiful Tiny Town in the country.
The beautification projects, which include mural paintings, carvings and the upgrade of many local facilities and attractions, highlight the pride the Awanui community takes in its heritage and local environment.
Suzie Clark, Awanui project manager on the revitalisation working group, said they were on cloud nine when the award was announced and were still buzzing yesterday after having a few days for it to sink in.
“We’re just all so happy. We have put a lot into revitalising Awanui and this award is a reward for all the hard work the entire community put into it. Awanui has a huge heart and the revitalisation project just really brought it back to life again and there’s been a real turnaround in the last year or two,” Clark said.
“If you uplift a township, you uplift the people too. and we’ve done that.”
She said the award was something to build on and had highlighted what else the community could be doing.
“This is just the starting point for us. We want to be more environmentally sustainable and develop even more, and there’s so much more we can do here.”
The revitalisation had been a big boost to business in the town and had led to more employment as more people stopped in. Large signs saying Welcome to the Most Beautiful Tiny Town in NZ would probably be erected on the entrances to the town.
She said Awanui would now be able to market itself as the Most Beautiful Tiny Town in New Zealand, giving it more opportunities for businesses to expand and employ even more people.
“Awanui has got its heart back, 100 per cent.”
Awanui is adept at celebrating its history with these panels a feature on SH1 through the town, part of a revitalisation project that has had it crowned the Most Beautiful Tiny Town in the country in the annual Keep NZ Beautiful Awards.
This is this first time the awards have celebrated the tiny towns of New Zealand, those with populations less than 999 residents.
Keep New Zealand Beautiful CEO Heather Saunderson said they received several nominations for some of New Zealand’s smallest towns and they wanted to give them an opportunity to be recognised for the hard work they do, with a new award.
Saunderson commended the Te Hiku revitalisation project for reinvigorating Awanui not only for its residents but for the many visitors it receives as the “Nexus to the North”.
The beautification projects, which include mural paintings, carvings and the upgrade of many local facilities and attractions, highlighted the pride the Awanui community took in its heritage and local environment, Saunderson said.
The judges were impressed with the community support and the amount that has been achieved in the town, which is the gateway to Ninety Mile Beach and Cape Reinga.
Also on Thursday at the awards, Karen Lee, of Whangārei, was one of three people to receive a Young Legend Award for outstanding volunteers who are under 18. The judges said the three exceptional individuals had demonstrated remarkable leadership and outreach in their community through work in one or more of the following areas: litter prevention, waste reduction, recycling promotion, and community beautification.
Meanwhile, Taupō won the Supreme Towns & Cities Award; Tauranga was named Most Beautiful Large City; New Plymouth was Most Beautiful Small City; Whakatāne was the Most Beautiful Large Town and Arrowtown was named as Most Beautiful Small Town — an award previously won by Kaitāia.
