"I think that was about seven years ago. We were just looking for some ways to add some nighttime vibrancy, to light up different parts of the CBD to make it safe for pedestrians and honestly, just to bring some warm fuzzies in the middle of winter."
Julie's mission was to find high-quality outdoor lights and have them set up properly so as not to damage the trees.
"We originally found a supplier out of town. They were the only ones, at the time, who had a website that said they could do it."
The first stumbling block was sourcing power at the two roundabouts.
"Taupō District Council came on board to do the directional drilling to get the power to the sites. When we got the lights up, the response from the community was huge. We've never had such a positive response to something we've done before. It really brightened up the place."
Unfortunately, the outdoor conditions meant "the lights didn't last very long".
"After about three years we needed to replace them. The first time around, they were about $10,000. The second time we used a local supplier but again they died after another two or three years.
"As a board we were saying we love these lights, the community loves these lights, but we can't just be pouring out $10,000 every two or three years."
A board member who knows Off Grid Electrical owner-operator Sean McCullough said he was a community-minded business owner who might sponsor the lights.
Julie says she set up a meeting with Sean and he said yes straight away.
"We were actually pretty floored. It has cost us nothing, he supplied the lights free of charge and did the labour free of charge. He worked with the council's traffic management team and did the installation during the early morning to avoid traffic disruption.
"He's just been a legend about it, he absolutely is a star. We didn't have a working relationship with him at all before this so for him to say 'absolutely, yes' straight away is fantastic.
"It makes you feel really good that people want to help out. To have more relationships like that, for our organisation, would be outstanding."
Sean says helping out with the project was a no-brainer.
"James Nottage introduced me to Julie because he does all my marketing. He said they were struggling to get it done and it was very expensive. It's not generally the sort of work we do but I said I'd have a look.
"We decided we could do it and it would be a good way to help out the community a little bit. It's definitely important to us, we do work for the council and all around the place, we want to have a good presence in the community.
"We're all living in the same place, trying to get by. Those lights do look quite cool when you're out there at night. When we were setting them up outside the BP, we had people calling out saying it was so cool we were getting them going again."
