Wakatipu Reforestation Trust

29/09/2026

🌳What a planting day at Jardine Park! 🌱

We had a huge turnout last Saturday and, with so many willing hands, 1,500 native trees and shrubs were in the ground well before midday.

It was so nice to have such a great crowd at the nursery, with lots of familiar faces and plenty of new ones too. And no one wasted any time - by the end of the morning the site was cleaned up, plant bags folded and everything packed away. Not bad for a morning’s work!

Audrey put together a fun native plant treasure hunt in the reference garden, and thanks to KAPA Design, the kids went home with some very cool native bird magnets for their efforts.

As always, a big thanks to Aabhi and the Hilton crew for keeping everyone well fed with a delicious morning tea, and to Trees That Count for supporting us to grow trees for this site.

This little corner of Jardine Park has had quite the transformation this year. Just a few months ago, Whakatipu Wilding Control Group removed the wilding pines from behind the nursery. Thanks to them going the extra mile with this clearance, we’ve been able to follow straight behind and start replacing them with natives. 🌿
And we’re not finished yet - another 3,000 plants are heading into the ground here at next month’s Industry Planting Day!

Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such an easy and enjoyable morning. 💪🌳☺️

Hilton Queenstown Resort & Spa
KAPA
Trees That Count
Whakatipu Wilding Control Group

27/09/2026

🙌 Yay…welcome Department of Conservation - Wānaka & Queenstown

25/09/2026

****Planting tomorrow at 9am**** The new planting area at Jardine Park is already looking fantastic thanks to the mighty crew that laid out 1500 plants today.
Tomorrow we have some fun native plant activities for the kids, the Hilton chefs have been baking up a storm for morning tea and the BBQs are ready to fire up after planting for lunch.
Drop in anytime between 9am-12.30pm.

Hilton Queenstown Resort & Spa
Queenstown Lakes District Council

22/09/2026

Thanks to the awesome crew who joined us at Slopehill Reserve on Saturday. We added 1000 natives to this wetland site and it looks fantastic 🌱

We got lucky with the weather window - though there was plenty of mud for those who wanted to really muck in (and many of you did!! 😄)

A special mention to the Crowne Plaza chefs who not only brought a hearty morning tea and hot drinks to keep us going, but also a team of planters who somehow kept their white t-shirts spotless despite the mud - impressive skills all round!

We have our last weekend planting for spring this coming Saturday. Join us at Jardine Park to help plant new forest trees next to the community nursery and we'll celebrate afterwards with a BBQ lunch.

Crowne Plaza Queenstown
Trees That Count
Department of Conservation - Wānaka & Queenstown

18/09/2026

***Slopehill Planting Day 9am tomorrow***

Everything is ready to roll for a fantastic day of wetland planting tomorrow. Thanks to the wonderful crew of volunteers who have been out today getting plants on site.

🥾What to bring.......The weather could be a bit mixed so come prepared with layers and a raincoat. Gumboots are also great option as we will be infill planting in this original block and it is boggy underfoot.

🚜Parking.......Look out for the green WRT flag on Slopehill Rd. As usual there is planting in the paddock, or if a bit damp there is parking along the road for 2wd.

☕Coffee??..... The chefs at the Crowne Plaza are kindly bringing along litres of hot drinks and morning tea to keep us warm and fuelled up. 🙏🙏

For any other info and directions see the event link in comments.

Plaza Queenstown
That Count

16/09/2026

If you missed this story highlighting the wonderful work that Whakatipu Wildlife Trust are doing across the basin, it is well worth a watch — not to mention the stunning birds eye view footage of our planting site at Slopehill Reserve. It is fantastic to be collaborating with other passionate groups and achieving so much more together for local biodiversity. If you would like to contribute to this project, we have a community planting day at Slopehill this Saturday morning at 9am. We'd love lots of helping hands to add another 1000 plants to this site. See comments for full event details.
(Hot tip.....bring your gumboots)

Trees That Count
Love Queenstown

Over the last decade, the Whakatipu Wildlife Trust has been quietly...

14/09/2026

Thank you to wonderfully talented local painter Emma Peers , who is supporting WRT by donating a portion of each painting sold at her new exhibition!

"Outside Lines" is a collection of local artists currently exhibiting at Lakes District Museum, running from 10 September to 18 October. Emma's work is a beautiful mix of texture and colour, drawing on the natural world around us.

Congratulations, Emma, on an amazing new collection of work, and thank you for supporting local conservation. 💚

26/05/2026

A reminder we're on winter hours at the nursery folks.
We'll be there from 10.30 - 2 pm tomorrow.
Hot soup on offer for lunch
Drop in when suits for as long as you like.

10/05/2026