Greening Taupō’s Planting Season Kick-Off: Karetoto Rd🌳 Wairakei Drive 🌳 Rotary Ride

What an incredible start to our 2025 planting season! Over the past few months, we’ve seen hundreds of passionate volunteers come together to plant thousands of native trees across Taupō—each event filled with laughter, hard work, and a whole lot of community spirit.

Kicking Off at Karetoto Road (5th April)

Our first planting of the season was a huge success, with over 200 volunteers turning out to plant 2,000 native plants along Karetoto Road 🌳 an area being transformed into a growing native forest after Cyclone Gabrielle’s impact.

This marks our second year of restoration at Karetoto Road with the community. Last season, two community plantings saw 4,000 natives take root, and we’re already preparing to add another 2,000 in 2026.

A huge amount of work has gone into preparing this site for planting, and even more effort will follow over the next few years—keeping weeds at bay and giving these beautiful natives the best chance to thrive. A special thank you to the awesome ongoing support of Shawn, Andrew, Ben, and Hutch for their tireless work.

Of course, the day wouldn’t have been such a success without our fantastic supporters:

🌳Supercars and the Taupō Trail Festival for their generous investment in this site, helping restore native biodiversity to the area. (Learn more about our amazing supporters here)

🌳The MB Century team for keeping everyone fuelled with their BBQ skills.

🌳Jo from Huka Honey Hive for buzzing in with delicious honey treats and their ongoing support for GT

🌳The Kids Greening Taupō student leaders, who were absolute stars—managing sign-ins, collecting pots, and helping wherever needed.

It was so heartwarming to see everyone back in our "happy place," hands in the dirt, working together for nature. Every plant in the ground is a step towards a greener Taupō!

Wairakei Drive with Upflow (3rd May)

Our third annual Upflow Community Planting was another successful day—200 people came together under sunny skies to plant 1,800 natives along Wairakei Drive.💚

What makes this project special is how it brings together businesses like Upflow, passionate individuals like Shawn, and our wider community to restore this important corridor—together.

Three years ago, geothermal company Upflow partnered with Greening Taupō to support Shawn’s vision of transforming Wairakei Drive into a thriving native ecosystem. (Read more about Upflow’s support here) In May this year, we celebrated three years and 5,300 native plants added to the corridor — all thanks to Upflow’s support. And the best part? They’re keen to keep going!

This year, a big thanks goes to Seay Earthmovers, who made life easier by drilling all 1,800 planting holes, giving our amazing regular volunteers who usually tackle that job a well-earned break — yeah right! Hutch stepped in to shovel MyNoke vermicast (top-tier plant food!) to the site, and Shawn continued on with his usual enthusiasm, not just making sure this year’s planting site looked good, but also checking in on neighbouring restoration areas along Wairakei Drive to make sure all was thriving.

We love that Upflow is all about sustainable energy — and even more so that they understand sustainability starts right here in our backyard.

We can’t wait to get more plants in the ground with you all again next year!

Rotary Ride Planting (17th May)

This one was another team effort! With 2000 plants to get in the ground along the Rotary Ride mountain bike track, we had awesome support from community partners Bike Taupō and team Cheal and even with a busy weekend filled with sports events and activities throughout town, over 100 amazing volunteers came out to help with the planting. 💚

A massive thanks to:

🌳Bike Taupō—absolute legends Bruce and Pete made multiple quad bike trips to transport plants and gear.

🌳Cheal - the team joined us the day before to lend a hand to set up

🌳Andrew- for hours of weed-clearing and site prep.

🌳Hutch- (yes, him again!) for drilling holes like a pro.

🌳MB Century- for another epic BBQ, keeping everyone smiling and well-fed.

🌳Kids Greening Taupō- student leaders and Project Tongariro Mahi Aroha- especially Anna, for capturing the day in photos.

It was fantastic to see so many people enjoying the trail while giving back to nature.

What’s Next?

With three successful community plantings under our belt, we are super excited for Greening Taupō Day next on the calendar.

A huge thank you to every volunteer, sponsor, and supporter who has helped us this season. Whether you planted, prepped, fed the crew, or cheered us on—you’re all part of growing a greener Taupō.

See you at the next one! 🌿