Goodbye and Reflections from Rachel

Nov 4

After 7 years in my role as the Lead Education Coordinator for Kids Greening Taupō (KGT), I have made the very difficult decision that it is time for me to move on. It has been a pretty incredible journey and I've loved every minute of it! As I finish up, I’ve been reflecting on my time in the role and how proud I am of what we have achieved. KGT was still getting going when I started and when I told people that I was moving from being a classroom teacher to KGT most of them had no idea what it was. Today, I think most people in town know what we do and every child has had sessions with us.

Being interviewed for Māori TV news about a trapline with TKKM o Whakarewa in 2020

Sian, Robyn, Andrew Hilton and I being interviewed for a Seven Sharp ‘Good Sorts’ story about Shawn Vennell (in orange) in 2020

I began working for Kids Greening Taupō as the Lead Education Coordinator at the start of 2020. I shadowed my predecessor, Thea, for the first five weeks, taking over from her officially on the first day of lockdown! The same day, KGTs other coordinator, Sian, started back after being on leave. We never had a chance to meet in person before starting work together from our ‘bubbles’. It was difficult to work with schools and the community when we were all stuck at home, and we felt pressure to prove to funders and sponsors that we were still achieving our goals. We decided that the way to do this was to make online resources that helped people to connect to their local green space and online resources for teachers who were sharing work online with their students. Our daily facebook ‘Nature Connectors’ became very popular and were later turned into website resources. Each week Sian and I would release an ‘Online Nature Classroom’, a unit of work about native species and Aotearoa Conservation. These resources are still on our website and the collection has grown to over 350 free educational resources used by teachers, students and whānau all over Aotearoa. Our 50+ te reo Māori resources are utilised by kura kaupapa and kōhanga reo nationwide. I have always been proud to bump into teachers from other parts of Aotearoa and hear that they regularly use our resources.

Our first Kairuruku reo Māori, Tākoha Pitiroi

There were many awesome projects already underway at urban schools and ECE centres, thanks to Thea and the team before me. It was great to continue these, and to start adding new schools and ECE centres. By 2022 we were excited to realise that we were working with all urban Taupō schools. Extra funding in the years following allowed us to begin working with rural schools and then with Tūrangi in 2024. We saw a need to employ a Kairuruku reo Māori to work with Kura Kaupapa and Kōhanga reo, so in 2021 we made this happen. Tākoha Pitiroi joined our team delivering our sessions in te reo Māori and beginning our te reo Māori resource development.

Today, in 2026, we have 49 schools/ECE centres that have planting projects with us. Many of them have multiple projects, such as a large restoration planting on TDC land nearby, a lizard or butterfly habitat in a school garden, an area of rongoā species, informative signage for significant native trees, a bug hotel, or an outdoor classroom space. It can be hard to keep on top of recording them all, but I have done my best to document many of them on 'Our Projects' page.

In 2020, we discussed trying to raise the profile of KGT and also allow the community a chance to give back to it. The idea of a fundraising event was raised and I wondered if we could ask the schools to have a ‘dress in green’ day. I thought that would be a good fundraiser, and a way for schools that recive our programme for free, to give back, but more importantly, a way to raise our profile. If every student in town asked their parents for a coin for KGT, that would get families talking about us and what we do. I couldn’t believe it when I saw tamariki all around town dressed in green for us. The annual Arbor Day planting event, ‘Greening Taupō Day,’ started officially in 2021, and grew fast. By 2024 it involved all of the schools in town, 50 organisations with activities and stands, and thousands of attendees. It was always a huge amount of work to bring it all together, and all over in a flash, but it is an event that I am proud to have been part of from its inception.

Thousands of people attending the opening of Greening Taupō Day 2026!

The annual Greening Taupō Day art competition has been going since 2021 and is always very popular. Donovan Bixley, Sue Graham, and Huka Honey Hive have been amazing supporters of this.

Making packs of resources for home learning for students in Hawkes Bay after Cyclone Gabriel

One thing that KGT has always done well, is to be flexible and able to take on any topics that are relevant to the community at the time. When the Aotearoa NZ Histories Curriculum was introduced, we ran teacher PD, released resources, and ran sessions in schools related to the history of biodiversity in Aotearoa. When invasive clams were discovered in the Waikato River, we were able to lead the charge with resource development - creating resources that are used by schools and councils throughout the country. We made it a goal to reach everyone in Taupō by running sessions with every school in the Taupō catchment, and we achieved it! When cyclone Gabriel hit, we were able to support schools in the Hawkes Bay that were cut off, by providing educational packs and getting them delivered by helicopter.

I’ve always been keen to jump into conservation opportunities and learn through real experience on the ground. This was vital to us being able to speak about this work to tamariki. For example, we emptied bait stations in the Pureora Forest, did bittern recording, joined kiwi releases, did predator monitoring on Mt Tauhara, did dactylanthus monitoring/pollination, and even helped with heather spraying on Mt Pihanga (getting there by helicopter was very exciting!). I’ve loved taking every opportunity to upskill through hui and courses too, attending a Blake Inspire Teachers course, a pekapeka hui, nature connection courses, bush school courses, fungi workshops, Climate Fresks, rongoā courses, a Tane’s Tree Trust AGM, Field-Based STEM opportunities, and even a Wingspan course to learn to dissect owl pellets! I was able to take an opportunity to do bat monitoring through the Bat Co. Lab, and that resulted in the first pekapeka in urban Taupō being recorded, which led to bat roost boxes being installed at the Waipahihi Botanical Reserve.

Learning to dissect barn owl pellets to see what they are eating in Aotearoa

Artificial bat roost box put up at the Waipāhīhī Botanical Reserve

The KGT Strategic Leadership Group is comprised of representatives from DOC, Project Tongariro, Taupō District Council, Waikato Regional Council, Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board, along with elected councilors, teachers, student leaders, ecologists, funders, and other stakeholders. This group was amazing at providing support, accountability, strategic guidance, and so much more.

Kids Greening Taupō was set up as a pilot project by DOC and other stakeholders in 2015. It has since been replicated in various forms in other places around Aotearoa. I have felt very privileged to be part of this network over the years, helping others and learning from others along the way. I have been asked to present or run a number of workshops at conferences and other events. Being able to share the knowledge and experience gained through our work with other educators has always been a privilege and the learning always goes both ways. Presenting at the Nature Education Network Conferences, where we camped in the rain was a highlight. I have been able to meet so many experts in different conservation fields and learn from all of them. Being able to call many of theses special people friends now is one of the best take-aways from my work with KGT.

Representing Tiwaiwaka and learning rongoā from Pā Ropata

We loved bringing in experts like Sam the Trap Man and Ruud Kleinpaste to work with students here in Taupō

I loved working with Ruud Kleinpaste over the years through KGT and in my job with Field-Based STEM

Taking opportunities as they arise, has been a real theme over the past 7 years. When we were asked if we could take the Kiwi Contact tours for Save the Kiwi at the Gallagher Kiwi Burrow in Wairakei, we jumped at the chance and that work has been a highlight for us. It’s hard to beat seeing a kiwi hatch out of an egg! We also took on the role of facilitating the Trees for Survival programme in Taupō and I have loved earning alongside the other facilitators from all over Aotearoa. They are all keen knowledgeable people working in similar roles in their areas. We tagged butterflies for NZ Moths and Butterflies research, swabbed number plates for the DNA Drive project, had a wallaby taxidermied and took on biosecurity education, collected native seedlings from pine forests and transplanted them, organised nature art classes, had overnight camps, organised catfish fishing, planted lizard habitats, run many guided bushwalks, and organised geothermal ecosystem resources - then took on education at Craters of the Moon and other geothermal spaces. Unlike other education programmes, we have never had a set curriculum to follow. This has meant that we have been able to keep things relevant and interesting, always supporting local conservation opportunities and learning needs as they arise. I believe that this has been a real strength of the programme.

Kiwi tours at Wairakei Golf + Sanctuary were always a highlight

Transplanting seedlings with NZ Forest Managers

Supporting the planting on Tauhara Maunga with Trees for Survival

Catching tradescantia beetles at Maeroa Intermediate to move to Taupō

I’ve loved being able to follow my own interests during my time with KGT, and then take the whole community with me on each journey. One example of this was when I became interested in biological controls. I asked WRC if there was any way that we could get involved with biocontrol work happening here in Taupō. They said that the tradescantia beetles had been going well in other parts of the Waikato, but had failed in Taupō. That sounded like a good challenge! I worked with them and Enviroschools to visit Maeroa Intermediate students in Hamilton, collecting beetles with ‘pooters’ (bottles with straws stuck in to suck up the beetles!). St Patrick’s School students in Taupō took on the project, releasing the beetles in their local gully and monitoring how they went. They successfully over-wintered and are now here in Taupō munching away at this terrible weed. We ended up hosting a bio-control workshop with WRC here too.

Being awarded the Harcourts Good Sort Award for Freshwater Biosecurity education in 2026

I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved and of the high-quality programme we have been able to deliver to all the tamariki in the wider Taupō area. It means a great deal to me that KGT is so highly regarded by schools, ECE centres, whānau, other environmental education organisations, and the many stakeholders that we work alongside, including businesses, councils, iwi and DOC. Thank you so all much for allowing me to share so many amazing learning experiences with your tamariki. It has been pretty special to learn alongside so many in the community. I'm proud of my part in helping the tamariki of Taupō to grow up with hands-on conservation opportunities as a standard part of their schooling. While I'm very sad to be leaving, I know that the programme is in great hands. Heidi will ensure that the awesome learning experiences continue. I look forward to seeing where the programme goes to next and what other awesome achievements it will have.