Taupō Mayor David Trewavas in front of the Love Taupō sign on the town lakefront. Photo / Andy Taylor
Taupō Mayor David Trewavas in front of the Love Taupō sign on the town lakefront. Photo / Andy Taylor
Taupō has been named the most beautiful large town in New Zealand at the annual Keep New Zealand Beautiful Awards.
The Keep New Zealand Beautiful Awards are New Zealand's longest-running sustainability awards and provide a benchmark for environmental excellence.
Run annually since 1972, the awards inspire, recognise and acknowledge individuals, schools, community groups, towns and cities who are working passionately to keep Aotearoa beautiful. In 2018, Taupō claimed the top spot in the same award.
Mayor David Trewavas accepted the award via video link and says winning the prestigious title again was testament to the great community spirit here in Taupō.
"As a council, we are proud of the amount of work we do, and the partnership approach we take with our schools, businesses and volunteer groups like Tidy Taupō and Greening Taupō, to protect and enhance our town," he says.
"It really is a team effort to keep Taupō beautiful and this award really showcases the hard work of both our council and the community in looking after the place we all love."
This year, finalists were judged across five areas: litter prevention and waste minimisation, community beautification, recycling projects, sustainable tourism and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
"We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of Aotearoa, and I cannot thank everyone enough for continuing to keep it that way – there are so many great initiatives underway across our town. From our community and school planting days, where we saw 15,000 native trees planted in one community area alone, to our regular community litter pick-up events, we are one team working together.
"I'm also very proud of some of the key initiatives that council undertook over this time including increasing the amount of plastics we recycle by nearly 20 per cent and diverting roughly five million plastic containers from landfill.
"Our council team is always looking at new and innovative ways to do things and it was great to see the redevelopment of our Great Lake Pathway gifting old pavers to schools and community organisations for re-use.
"At the moment, we're transforming our town to create people-friendly spaces that better connect us with our surrounding environment and strengthens pedestrian and cycling access.
"We've also introduced natural burials, and we will continue to support our community to deliver new and innovative initiatives. We want to be a town that is known world-wide for our pristine environment so I am very proud to accept the award as New Zealand's most beautiful large town."
Keep New Zealand Beautiful CEO Heather Saunderson says it's been a tough year for community groups, councils and individuals alike.
"People are doing so much with limited resources to keep their communities beautiful.
"Striving to improve New Zealand's environment and thereby the quality of life in our rural communities, urban towns and cities."
A key highlight for the judges was the Taupō community working with businesses to conduct waste audits and achieving a 90 per cent diversion from landfill.
Heather says the new natural burial zone provides a greater choice and reduces environmental pollution created by the embalming process and/or cremation.
Volunteers from Whakatāne Kiwi Trust run night walks in the forest surrounding Whakatane. Photo / Supplied
Whakatāne was the other finalist in the most beautiful large town category, and they won the supreme town and city award for efforts made in biodiversity, tree planting, and bringing a tighter cohesion to rural/urban environmental efforts. The town's prize is a mural painted in their town by a local artist up to the value of $10,000.
Bob Scott feeds ducks with his granddaughter Ruby Scott at Queens Park in Invercargill. Photo / File
Taupō's Great Lake Pathway was also a finalist as part of the Kiwis' Choice Award, celebrating favourite public spots such as a beach, a park, a lookout, a waterfall, a lake or a walking track. The award was won by Queens Park, Invercargill, 81 hectares of land in inner-city Invercargill with more than 3300 Southlanders voting for the popular park.
