Power Planting with Unison and Contact Energy⚡🌳

On the 3rd of August, over 130 volunteers came together for a Power Planting event that truly lived up to its name! Together with Unison, Contact Energy, Kids Greening Taupō, and our amazing community volunteers, we planted 1,600 native plants at the Unison-sponsored restoration site along Centennial Drive.

This event marked the beginning of an exciting new partnership with Unison, whose support will help us continue restoring this special site over the next three years. Centennial Drive holds a special place in Greening Taupō’s story, it was the site of our very first Greening Taupō Day celebration back in 2021. With Unison’s backing and the community’s enthusiasm, we can continue to restore an area once overrun by pest plants into thriving native habitat, enhancing and extending the corridors that connect the Waikato River to Mt Tauhara.

We were also proud to celebrate our longstanding partnership with Contact Energy, who has been planting with Greening Taupō since 2013. Together, we’ve established over 24,000 native plants and welcomed more than 1,000 volunteers to help restore areas along Wairakei Drive. These plantings not only support native wildlife but also enhance the natural beauty of Taupō, creating a welcoming environment for both locals and visitors.

The success of these Contact and Unison plantings shows what’s possible when partnerships and community come together with a shared purpose for the environment.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us this year. We look forward to many more successful Power Planting days ahead growing partnerships, people, and native forests for Taupō’s future. 🌱

With our partners support, blackberry and unwanted woody species were cleared, the site prepared, weeds managed, and native plants provided. The awesome community came together to plant them, and the new native forest is ready to flourish.🌱🌳

We also planted many rimu, miro, and tōtara, nestled among the thriving 2021 plantings. These will grow into beautiful giant trees. Our awesome Wicked Weeders have returned to the site to complete mulching, staking, and ensure the plants are thriving. Next up, we’re preparing the following site for the 2026 community planting 💚.