2023 AGM Weekend Review - Taupō

AGM weekend 2023: Taupō

by Hannah Townley & Kiri Te Wano

This year Taupō put on a stunning weekend of weather and activities for everyone to enjoy!

We kicked the weekend off with an early morning trip out on Lake Taupō, the morning started a little cool but soon warmed up. We were fortunate to secure two private charters with Taxicat Adventures from Kinloch Marina. The beautiful morning saw us speeding our way out to Rangatira Point where we heard from Singers Ecological about all of the hard mahi we have been doing in the area controlling Wilding Conifers (pine trees). We even managed to venture out to the Maori Rock Carvings where our local skipper Ian gave us a talk about the carvings and the history of the area.

After refueling for lunch in Taupō, many of us joined the Kids Greening Taupō Restoration Tour. Two vans took a group of 15 people around numerous restoration sites. We commenced our journey at the Matariki site on Rickett St, traversing the river to admire plantings around the Control Gates and the Fox planting near Acid Drop. Climbing Control Gates Hill, we turned onto Huka Falls Rd, pausing at Hipapatua (formerly Reids Farm) to observe five years of planting.

Continuing through The Hub area, we marveled at successful plantings and proceeded to Karetototo Road, where a newly cleared area, a result of Cyclone Gabriel, awaits two community plantings in 2024. We then headed to Kauri Drive in Wairakei Village, noting the impactful work of Shawn Vennell (Quality Print) alongside the Sanctuary and Wairakei Resort.

From here, we made our way to Wairakei Drive and headed to Kauri Drive in Wairakei Village, passing many of Shawn Vennell's works alongside the Sanctuary and at Wairakei Resort. Once at the Kauri Drive planting site, we checked out the area and discussed the extensive efforts, from weed clearance and unearthing truckloads of rubbish to planting and staking 9000 plants. Ongoing maintenance is led by Shawn Vennell with Greening Taupō support and funding from LINZ. We hopped back in the van, taking the bypass to town, and explored the Crown Park site, which has hosted two large Greening Taupō Day celebrations.

We also checked out the Taupo Intermediate gully transformation and the thriving native bush site at Hinemoa Kindergarten, one of Kids Greening Taupō’s first restoration projects. What a fantastic van tour!

The restoration tour took slightly longer than expected and we returned to Suncourt well informed, but a little late for getting ready for the AGM at 4pm! On arrival at Suncourt we were taken to the conference room where Paul Green graciously stepped in as Chair for Mike O’Sullivan who came down sick on Friday evening. We listened to a variety of presentations from Project Tongariro, Greening Taupō and Kids Greening Taupō. We heard about the work they had been doing over the last year, some of their highlights and some of the more challenging aspects of their varied roles within the community. It was great to hear about all of the hard mahi that has been done by staff and volunteers alike.

Following the successful AGM we moved to the dining area of the conference centre. While eating some delicious platters and having a well earned beverage we got a chance to catch up with some familiar faces and meet some new ones! Dinner was served in a buffet style, a change from what had been originally planned due to the high number of people attending the AGM. Following our meal we were entertained yet again by Rachel and Heidi’s engaging, energetic and informative quiz, this year's themes being why we need our ngahere, ugly native fish of NZ and fungi! There were a lot of competitive teams out there and it ended in a tie for the winner! This year’s raffle followed the quiz, with more beautiful prizes up for grabs - Thank you Shirley for providing the possum fur hot water bottle and to Frank for the beautifully handcrafted box, made from Plum tree wood. The raffle was hugely successful and we raised a total of $330 Enough for 3 adopt a hectares! After the meal and raffle we were so lucky to have Wendy Ambury from Lover Bittern! Talk to us about these amazing and critically endangered wetland birds. We also learnt about the new smart phone app targeted at monitoring wetland birds (such as the bittern) and how the app was helping their restoration efforts Wendy’s talk was so engaging and informative and I’m sure we have a new fledging group of passionate bittern protectors, using the app!

Sunday morning, after our Saturday’s AGM day of activities dawned bright and sparkly. It was another cracker of a day!

The impressive large group of 36 participants on the trip met in front of Suncourt before we headed off in convoy for Lake Rotokawa, just north east of Taupō, with Harry Keys, our trip leader up front.

For those of you who have not visited this geothermal area before, it is a special area, containing a lake and an old sulfur mining site. Thankfully most of the mining site has been restored, but there are still some bits of old infrastructure still there.

Harry Keys and Karen Williams were our tour leaders and provided us with an extremely interesting mixture of geothermal science and human history. The landscape here is spectacular and we felt particularly lucky to be able to wander around it with Harry, because at first glance, it would seem too dangerous to venture into!

We walked around areas where mining had obviously occurred - and you could still see the gouge marks in the bank. We wandered through a series of plopping mud pools and bubbling, steaming hot water pools. We leaned over huge fumaroles to gaze upon the rainbow of colours of the soil in the holes. We listened to stories of futile efforts to get at the sulfur situated underneath Lake Rotokawa.

The morning was riveting and seemed to fly by, despite us walking for nearly 4 hours! I could have stayed there for the rest of the day, following Harry around and listening enthralled! A huge thank you to Harry and Karen for helping make this AGM field trip so successful!

On our return back to Taupo we parted our ways for home - looking forward to next year's special occasion, our 40th Anniversary Celebration in Ohakune - our spiritual home for Project Tongariro. Save the date - the weekend of 16th & 17th November 2024!