Kia ora tātou,

Thank you for taking the time to read our monthly pānui! On our menu this month:

🏔️ Releasing Kiwi & Restoring Mauri: beautiful story and results
👀 Meet Sophie, our Business Support manager!
🌱 Save the dates! The Sustainable Trails is back in 2025…
☀️ Community Nature Cleanup this Sunday 10am at Ngāmotu Beach
♻️ The 2025 Upcycling Challenge starts now!
🧑‍🌾 Big Pizza Party 🍕 at the Marfell Māra on Sat. 29 March
🌿 NEW Zero Waste Workshop Series with The Junction
🏆 Photo of the month: we went viral! Ngā mihi Te Matatini
🦸 Denise is our Volunteer of the Month!
📆 Our Events Calendar to make sure you won’t miss any sustainable events in Taranaki!

Happy reading! 🌿

Ngā mihi,

The Sustainable Taranaki tīma ☀️

🏔️ Releasing Kiwi & Restoring Mauri: a beautiful story and some great results

Since 2021, our Te Ara Taiao programme has been involved in translocating and releasing 250 Kiwi in Te Papakura o Taranaki, and the results have been inspiring, strengthening Whanaungatanga through Kaitiakitanga. 🌿

“Long ago, Kiwi soared through the canopy of the ngāhere with vibrant, beautiful wings. But when the tamariki of Tānemāhuta, atua of the trees, were in danger, kiwi made the selfless choice to sacrifice their wings to protect them.” (…) 🔑🟤

➡️ Read the full story here. 

👀 Meet Sophie, our Business Support manager!

With over 20 years of experience in business, specialising in marketing and sustainability, she’s passionate about making sustainability accessible and achievable for all. Sophie has managed environmental certification programmes and holds a Master’s in Sustainable Management. 🌿

Want to discover how we can support your business?
➡️ Contact Sophie for a chat. 

🌱 Save the dates! The Sustainable Trails is back in 2025…

What an incredible year 2024 was for the Sustainable Trails! The trail united passionate individuals, inspiring ideas, and innovative sustainability practices. From lush backyard havens to eco-friendly builds and thriving farms, we explored many ways to create a more sustainable future. 🌏💚

For 2025, we want to warmly welcome our new coordinator, Cath Stabb, whose passion and vision will shape the next chapter of the trail. Welcome aboard, Cath!

🎉 Save the date! 📅 The 2025 Sustainable Backyards, Builds, and Farms Trail will inspire us all again from 31 October - 16 November. See you there!

➡️ Watch Jen and Cath discussing the 2024 & 2025 Sustainable Trails!
➡️ Listen to Cath introducing herself in our weekly Talking Taiao podcast

☀️ Nature Cleanup this Sunday 10am at Ngāmotu Beach

Come and help us clean this beautiful beach and walkway! We’ll sort the waste collected on-site and try to divert as much as we can from the landfill. ALL WELCOME!

You do NOT need to be “fit” or stay for the full 2 hours.
Any help is MUCH APPRECIATED! 💚

📆 Sunday 23 March - 10am
📍 Ngāmotu Beach, grass area at the bottom of Bayly Rd (look for our flag!)
🙋 ALL WELCOME, BYO buckets and gloves (if possible)
🔔 RSVP to our Facebook event to get a reminder!

♻️ The 2025 Upcycling Challenge starts now!

The Junction Upcycling Challenge is BACK! 🏆
💸 WIN Mitre10 & Reuse Shop vouchers!

🛠 HOW DOES IT WORK?
1. Buy something from The Junction - Zero Waste Hub Reuse Shop
2. Send a before photo
3. UPCYCLE IT!
4. Send a photo of your finished project

⛔️ Entries close April 30th 2025.
➡️ For more information visit The Junction website.

🧑‍🌾 Big Pizza Party 🍕 at the Marfell Community Garden on Sat. 29 March!

Local students have helped to build a woodfire pizza oven at Marfell Community Garden, and we're going to make the most of it this month!

March is officially Get-To-Know-Your-Neighbours Month for Aotearoa, and there's no better time for a Block Party. Wherever you're from, absolutely all are welcome!

💚 On The House Food Rescue has kindly reserved enough cheese and pizza sauce to cook pizzas till sundown! 🍕

So, bring the whole whānau down on Saturday 29 March from 12pm, have a forage in the māra and build your dream pizzas! 🧑‍🌾

🎉 Music, lawn games & activities will be running all afternoon - stay and eat as long as you like. BYOB.

➡️ RSVP here to our Facebook event and get a reminder!

🌿 NEW Zero Waste Workshop Series

From organic materials, food growing and natural closed-loop systems to solutions for building waste reduction in home renovations we hope to share experiences and understanding that will help our community rethink, reduce, reuse and recycle our way to ZERO WASTE. 

Workshops:
🧺 Kono (flax) Weaving Class
🍄‍🟫 Grow Oyster Mushrooms in Upcycled Containers
👷 Waste reduction in new home builds & renovations
🧼 DIY Natural cleaning products
🌻 Introduction to Permaculture & Reuse in the Garden
🪡 Zero Waste and Sustainable Textiles

📆 14 April - 11 May
📍 Envirohub, Pukekura Park (next to Brooklands Zoo)
🎟️ Bookings will be available this Tuesday 25 March on www.thejunction.org.nz
👀 Stay tuned for our announcements next week!

🏆 Our Photo of the Month!

You might have seen it on our Socials two weeks ago but we went viral with our post showing how clean the Pukekura Park and the Bowl of Brooklands were after each day during Te Matatini 2025.

We’ve reached 1 million views (combining Facebook & Instagram) with thousands of positive comments and reactions! If you’ve missed it, you can see our post here on Facebook and here on Instagram.

We’d like to send a last BIG ngā mihi to the public, the volunteers and the staff for their amazing support with the Para Kore (Zero Waste) during Te Matatini. 💚

It has been BUSY for our team** but we had an amazing time and everyone did an outstanding mahi to help us keep this great venue beautiful! Ka rawe! 🎉

** Special ngā mihi to our Sustainable Taranaki Team for their hard mahi during Te Matatini: Suzy, Fiona, Ovila, Sunita, Hone, Elric, Joe & Mieke. 💚

Learn more about the Sustainable Taranaki Volunteers programme here.

Stay connected and informed by joining our
Facebook group Sustainable Taranaki Volunteers! ☀️

You can see our Volunteering Calendar here!

Get more regular info & updates by following us on:
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