Community

Taupō is well known for its glamour events on the lakefront, but locals know the hard mahi goes on behind the scenes at Owen Delany Park. 

Taupō Community Gardens is having a growth spurt as more residents turn to cultivating their own produce to help bridge the gap in the grocery budget. 

Taupo Bridge Club is experiencing unprecedented interest from new players.

Taupō’s generous underbelly works quickly in times of need.

The Taupō Primary School Year 5 student created a stop-go animation video, with a bit of help from her mum Fiona Bramwell who provided the scary voice of a clam and dad Ian who helped with some of the props.

The Lake Taupō harbourmaster has clarified its role in rescues with Fire and Emergency after FENZ struggled to get hold of them when a boy was rescued just before Christmas.

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I’ve been thinking about love – the real, everyday kind that keeps us warm through our chilly winters and makes those long summer lake days even better. You know how sometimes you pour your heart into something for your partner... only to feel like it didn’t quite land? Or they do something sweet, and you’re left wondering why it doesn’t hit the spot the way you’d hoped?

We went on the hunt for the cutest, weirdest, funniest pets in Taupō and had 120 photos in two days. Impossible to narrow them down but here’s a selection.

Maru Energy Trust has appointed whānau advocate Monica Duff as its ‘community champion’ for Tūrangi.

The recent passing of Helen Rabinska is a profound loss for Taupō.

Singles aged 35 and over will gather at Cobb and Co on Valentine's Day for the latest installment of Taupō's Mix and Mingle.

Robbie Shearer celebrates 100 years with tales of wartime loss, love and even a childhood friendship with Sir David Attenborough.

The Taupō Parents Centre is struggling to remain open despite helping hundreds of new parents each year.

Rachel Thompson, environmental educator for Kids Greening Taupō, is this month’s Harcourts Taupō Good Sort for her work in preventing invasive gold clams from entering Lake Taupō.

Taupō is producing a generation of young people with a huge understanding of the ecology they live in, and ground-breaking education is starting to be picked up in other regions.

‘Have you served and how can we help you?’ That’s the simple motto that has served Mangakino RSA well for 80 years.

 Tūrangi teen Amy Smith has completed two Blue Light programmes, and her coinfidence is sky-high.

Taupō’s Anneke Jacoba Dinnington has been honoured with a King’s Service Medal in the New Year Honours List 2026.

Mayoral winner John Funnell and runner-up Zane Cozens were the big spenders in last year’s local body election race.

There’s an environmental disaster looming and people are being encouraged to grab their phones and start filming.

Dozens of children in Tūrangi got a Christmas present his year thanks to the last-minute generosity of the Rotary Club on Tūrangi and The Warehouse Taupō.

From the editor Dan Hutchinson: Survive ‘till ‘25’ was the call this time last year and that was always going to be too many punctuation marks.

Kaz Cederwall, owner operator of Market Central says the local market and its summer evening add-on – Dinner at the Lake – is going from strength to strength.

The town fireworks fizzled at Guy Fawkes’ leaving a community group holding a huge cache of glowing rings, bracelets, wands and ‘Thunder Sticks’. Taupō Community Patrol uses glow-stick sales as its main fundraiser each year, so now it’s setting sights on New Year fireworks celebrations, with a stall on Titiraupenga Street, not far from the prime lakefront viewing areas.

The JB behind VGLT is stepping sideways.

Newly-elected Taupō District Mayor John Funnell took up the mayoralty in October after a career as a rescue helicopter pilot and business owner. He shares his reflections on his first two months.

The ‘Awhina Christmas Angels’ have been hard at work this week sorting hundreds of donated Christmas presents to give to children all over the district.

Threatened black-billed gulls are again nesting on the rooftops in Tūrangi town centre, but the town shouldn't see a return of previous disruptions. 

People are getting a little more than fast food when they turn up to the drive through at McDonalds Taupō these days.

The opening of a new Northern Health School (Te Kura Awhina Ora o te Raki) classroom in Taupō marks a significant milestone for the local unit, says teacher and unit leader Maaike Clapcott.