Okaihau dairy farmers Craig and Suzanne Johnsen met some awesome people during their involvement with the Ballance Farm Environment Awards.
The couple, who milk 260 cows on 94ha (87ha effective), with a 38ha run-off nearby, entered the awards for the first time last year because they wanted to showcase their attractive, productive family farm.
The property's location, on a busy corner of the Okaihau plateau, gives it a high profile, but they say they do whatever they can to demonstrate that they are responsible when it comes to sustainability.
"We do everything by the book, and we take our environmental footprint very seriously," Mr Johnsen said.
Entering the 2016 awards had allowed them to highlight the work they were doing to the wider community, while the judging process gave them a valuable opportunity to benchmark their operation against other dairy businesses, and find out what they could do in future to make further improvements.