Ruapehu District, Taumarunui

New lottery, new home

New lottery, new home

For just $15, you could win a fully furnished home in Clarks Beach, Auckland worth over $1 million. Buy your tickets today!

128 days ago

Winter Gardening

Hilda Ross Retirement Village

Winter isn’t usually associated with pottering about in the garden. However, it’s possible to grow, harvest, and share a bustling winter crop.

As we have celebrated Matariki and the beginning of the Māori New Year, for winter gardeners it’s the right time to cultivate crops that thrive in… View more
Winter isn’t usually associated with pottering about in the garden. However, it’s possible to grow, harvest, and share a bustling winter crop.

As we have celebrated Matariki and the beginning of the Māori New Year, for winter gardeners it’s the right time to cultivate crops that thrive in cooler temperatures and to prepare the soil for future planting.

Click read more for the full story.

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129 days ago

Caring For You Like Family

The Team from Ryman Healthcare

91-year-old Dora is a rest home resident at Ryman.

Between family gatherings, bus trips and village activities, she certainly enjoys a full life. With the many friendships she’s made, the caregivers and village staff have become an extension of her family.

Hear about Dora’s experienceView more
91-year-old Dora is a rest home resident at Ryman.

Between family gatherings, bus trips and village activities, she certainly enjoys a full life. With the many friendships she’s made, the caregivers and village staff have become an extension of her family.

Hear about Dora’s experience living in a Ryman community.
Find out more

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137 days ago

For a bit of fun...

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

What old products do you miss? Some products do become part of your life, whether it's just a treat you have at the cinema or your favourite breakfast spread.

Do you have a childhood memory to share? Let us know below what products you still think of fondly!

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130 days ago

2 weeks left to enter the Sunday Star-Times Winter Puzzle Comp!

Winter Puzzle

Don’t miss your chance to WIN 1 of 50 supermarket gift cards worth $100 each!
Simply grab a copy of your local Stuff newspaper, solve the puzzle, find the prize word, and enter it online.

The more puzzles you complete the higher your chance to WIN! The competition ends on 28 July. To find … View more
Don’t miss your chance to WIN 1 of 50 supermarket gift cards worth $100 each!
Simply grab a copy of your local Stuff newspaper, solve the puzzle, find the prize word, and enter it online.

The more puzzles you complete the higher your chance to WIN! The competition ends on 28 July. To find out more about participating newspapers, click here.

The Team at Stuff and Sunday Star-Times
Find out more

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131 days ago

Enjoy fragrant lilies thanks to NZ Gardener

NZ Gardener

This July, NZ Gardener has teamed up with NZ Bulbs to offer you a FREE pack of mixed oriental lily bulbs when you purchase a 1 or 2-year magazine subscription*. Your bulbs will be sent out in late August, the perfect time to plant in time to have fragrant Christmas flowers.

With a subscription … View more
This July, NZ Gardener has teamed up with NZ Bulbs to offer you a FREE pack of mixed oriental lily bulbs when you purchase a 1 or 2-year magazine subscription*. Your bulbs will be sent out in late August, the perfect time to plant in time to have fragrant Christmas flowers.

With a subscription to NZ Gardener, you’ll enjoy professional and inspirational garden advice, convenient monthly delivery to your home, exclusive subscriber-only discounts, big savings off the retail price, PLUS subscribe before 28 July to enjoy free lily bulbs! *T&Cs apply.
Find out more

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133 days ago

Fun house

The Team from Resene ColorShop Taupo

Enjoy the thrill of the Christmas countdown with a DIY advent calendar that’s choc-filled with festive activities and finished in your favourite Resene testpot colours. Find out how to create your own with these easy step by step instructions.

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136 days ago

Win a brand-new home!

Heart Foundation Lottery

For only $15 a ticket, you could be in to win this brand-new, fully furnished Jennian home located in gorgeous Mangawhai, worth almost $1.4 million dollars.

Featuring three bedrooms, two bathrooms and an open-plan kitchen, living and dining area, this home is waiting to be loved by its new … View more
For only $15 a ticket, you could be in to win this brand-new, fully furnished Jennian home located in gorgeous Mangawhai, worth almost $1.4 million dollars.

Featuring three bedrooms, two bathrooms and an open-plan kitchen, living and dining area, this home is waiting to be loved by its new owner.

Make this coastal property your permanent residence, a holiday home, a rental, or you can simply sell it!

Get your tickets today at heartlottery.org.nz.
Find out more

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137 days ago

Hang it up

The Team from Resene ColorShop Taupo

Magnetic frames make it easy to change what’s on display – whether it’s wallpaper or works of art. Paint yours in Resene testpots to contrast what's on display and complement your home's décor.

Find out how to create your own with these easy step by step instructions.

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144 days ago

Why are ghosts such bad liars?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

...You can see right through them.

No, we haven't lost the plot! July 1st is International Joke Day and because laughter is good for your body, we want to get involved.

So, go on, jokers! Share your best joke below...

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140 days ago

Plywood pegboard

Resene National Head Office

Easily change the height and layout of the shelves any time as your plants grow or the items you want to showcase change with this handy pegboard finished in Resene Colorwood Whitewash.

Find out how to create your own with these easy step by step instructions.
Find out more

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141 days ago

⏰ Last chance Taupō District! ⏰

Darren Petry from Taupō District Council

Have you had your say on our Long-term Plan yet? Submissions close this Friday and we want to hear from you!
📣Have we got the balance right?
Should we focus most of our effort and money on essential services?
🚘 Safe roads
💧 Resilient water infrastructure
💡 Keeping the lights on
View more
Have you had your say on our Long-term Plan yet? Submissions close this Friday and we want to hear from you!
📣Have we got the balance right?
Should we focus most of our effort and money on essential services?
🚘 Safe roads
💧 Resilient water infrastructure
💡 Keeping the lights on
👉🏼 Find out more and let us know what you think here

📣Bag it or Bin it
Have your say on the future of kerbside rubbish and recycling!
Last year we asked what you thought of bags vs bins and heard from heeeeeaaaaaaaps of you.
So we’ve done some more mahi, worked out the details and crunched the numbers. Now we’re back asking the big question. Bag It or Bin It?
Check out the video here.
👉🏼 Find out more and have your say here.

📣Should we help ease the housing crisis in the Taupō District?
We own a parcel of land south of Richmond Heights in Taupō. We have the opportunity to sell some of this to a development partner who would build high-quality, attractive homes on it.
🏡 Some of these homes (around 42) would be targeted at first home buyers who can afford to pay a mortgage. The remainder would be sold on the open market.
👉🏼 Find out more and have your say here

📣How should we deal with wastewater?
Wastewater is the dirty water that's left behind after taking a shower, doing a load of washing or flushing the loo.
💧 In Taupō, there's been more houses being built on the northern side of the Waikato River. This means the pipe that takes wastewater across to the Taupō Wastewater Treatment Plant is almost at capacity.
💧 In Tūrangi, the wastewater is treated to a very high standard and disposed of into a wetland. This is a very common process in other parts of New Zealand but the community has raised concerns and asked us to try to find a land-based option.
👉🏼 We've come up with some different solutions. Check them out here.

📣Increasing fees and charges to manage rates
One way to try and keep rates under control is to increase our fees and charges on different services that people choose to use. We’re thinking of a 20-25 percent increase across the board.
📌 Adult AC Baths entry from $10 to $12
📌 Swim lessons from $12 to $15
📌 Rubbish bag stickers from $2 to $2.50
📌 Broadlands Road Landfill minimum charge from $21 to $26
📌 Building consent from $100 to $125
All of these services, like swimming pools and landfills, are topped up by rates. By putting up our fees and charges, it means that people who use the services contribute more towards the cost of providing them.
This helps reduce that cost burden falling on the wider community through rates (including the people who don’t use these facilities or services at all).
👉🏼 Find out more and have your say here.

📣Let’s talk about Control Gates Bridge
We’ve heard from many of you that you’re not enjoying sitting in traffic waiting to cross the Waikato River at certain times of the day.
🚗 Planning for a solution to ease congestion was meant to happen in 2031-33 but traffic volumes are increasing faster than we predicted. The plan is to spend the next three years working with Mercury, iwi, and hapū to begin working on options.
🌉 We’ll come back to you with some detailed designs and costs in 2027, with a view to starting construction in 2029. A rough initial estimated cost is $73.5 million. What do you think?
👉🏼 Find out more and have your say here.

📣Plan for Tūrangi town centre
We know the Tūrangi community are really keen to see their town centre tidied up and given a new lease on life, and there is also a lot of excitement about a community recreation centre in Tūrangi.
🏗️ During our last Long-term Plan in 2021, we started working with Ngāti Tūrangitukua to create a community recreation centre for Tūrangi. This centre is still in our draft Long-term Plan, but it has been delayed until 2028.
That’s because, although we allocated $15.9 million for the centre in our 2021-31 Long-term Plan, construction costs have risen significantly and there’s also uncertainty around where a centre should go, who would run it, and how it would be used. It is going to be expensive to build and operate and we aren’t confident the Tūrangi community can afford a centre of this size right now.
🎣 At the same time, the community has been asking for action on the Tūrangi town centre, and there are some links between getting this sorted and investing in a recreation centre.
So, what we’re proposing is that we do some town centre structure planning to get that functioning better, which will help us figure out what recreation facilities are needed and where best to place them.
In this plan, we’ve allocated around $150,000 to our town centre planning in 2025 and $17.5 million for the recreation centre project in the years 2028-2030. What do you think?
👉🏼 Find out more and have your say here.

📣Transport funding changes
We usually get help funding our transport projects like road widening from Waka Kotahi (New Zealand Transport Agency).
🚗 We’d like to improve some intersections in the next 10 years like AC Baths Avenue, Napier Road/Crown Road intersection and Taharepa Road/Crown Road intersection near Tauhara Primary School. We’d also like to do some major upgrades on Broadlands Road, Poihipi Road and Whangamata Road.
If we get less money, what should we do? Increase our budget to make up the shortfall so we can deliver the full list of projects? Or change the projects up to meet our smaller budget?
👉🏼 Find out more and have your say here.

📣Rates increase
Rachel lives in Taupō central, is passionate about living sustainably, yoga, her super cute cats and chooks, and the community. She is also one of our awesome councillors.
🏡 Rachel's looking at $4,079.97 in rates next year. That's an extra $450 from last year. Most ($415) of this increase is going towards targeted rates that pay for keeping our water and wastewater infrastructure up to scratch.
👉🏼 What's your number? Find out here.

📣Have we missed something?
We love how passionate our community is in the Taupō rohe. If there’s something that we’ve missed out that you think should be included in this plan, we really want to hear from you.
🙋🏼 Skip to question 11 of our submission survey and give your feedback or send an email to 10yearplan@taupo.govt.nz.
👉🏼 Find out more about making a submission here.

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142 days ago

Last chance to share your Bright Spot...

Resene

From stunning sunsets to quirky murals - we're loving seeing the beautiful photos that members are sharing across the country. These local Bright Spots add a little colour and brighten the day.

Our Bright Spots campaign closes on Sunday, 15 July so time is running out to share yours. With … View more
From stunning sunsets to quirky murals - we're loving seeing the beautiful photos that members are sharing across the country. These local Bright Spots add a little colour and brighten the day.

Our Bright Spots campaign closes on Sunday, 15 July so time is running out to share yours. With 10 prizes of $250 Resene ColorShop vouchers and $250 Prezzy® cards up for grabs, do take a moment and share this happy place with us.

Enter your local Bright Spots pics here today and be in to *WIN*.
Find out more

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144 days ago

Try Joy’s Oven Hāngi Recipe

Hilda Ross Retirement Village

This warming Hāngi recipe, created by Joy from Murray Halberg Village, serves six people with plenty of leftovers to enjoy the next day. Serve hot and enjoy with family or friends on a chilly winters night.

Click read more for the full recipe.

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146 days ago

30 Years of Homes & Gardens

NZ House & Garden

It’s NZ House & Garden’s 30th birthday, and to celebrate they’ve put together a great offer that’ll light up your home. Purchase or gift a 1 or 2-year subscription to NZ House & Garden and receive a Living Light luxury soy candle worth $56.90 for FREE*.

Enjoy inspirational home … View more
It’s NZ House & Garden’s 30th birthday, and to celebrate they’ve put together a great offer that’ll light up your home. Purchase or gift a 1 or 2-year subscription to NZ House & Garden and receive a Living Light luxury soy candle worth $56.90 for FREE*.

Enjoy inspirational home & garden content, convenient monthly home delivery, exclusive subscriber-only discounts, up to 27% off retail, and a Living Light luxury soy candle worth $56.90 when you become part of the NZ House & Garden community. *T&Cs apply.
Find out more

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151 days ago

Poll: Is it still rude to wear a hat inside?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

Times have changed and perhaps so has our societal rules around taking off hats when indoors. What are your thoughts?

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Is it still rude to wear a hat inside?
  • 74.6% Yes, take them off indoors
    74.6% Complete
  • 24.3% No, it's not anymore
    24.3% Complete
  • 1.1% Other - I'll share below
    1.1% Complete
4078 votes
Top