New campaign to guide tourism in North Canterbury as borders reopen
North Canterbury’s Hurunui district is working on a plan to welcome back visitors in a way that will have the community’s needs at its core.
Visit Hurunui’s new campaign – Let’s Have a Yarn – includes a destination management plan to make sure tourism benefits everyone once New Zealand’s borders fully open again.
Marketing manager Shane Adcock said the plan was essential as tourism was growing at an “unprecedented rate prior to the pandemic”.
“In Hurunui, we were just starting to feel the impact of that growth, so we now have a chance to plan ahead and ensure that tourism can grow alongside our communities.”
Fifth generation Hurunui farmer Scotty Bamford, who features in the campaign, said he loved Hurunui, with its beaches, mountains, farmland, and the popular alpine thermal resort in Hanmer Springs.
“You can do a bit of everything and generally not bump into a lot of people”, which Bamford said was “probably New Zealand’s best keep secret”.
Hurunui locals have been asked to provide feedback and ideas for the region’s management plan through in-person sessions or online.
Questions posed to the community included what they loved about the region, what opportunities tourism could provide, what challenges were being faced and what must be protected.
“We really want our communities across Hurunui to have a yarn with us in person, but if they can’t make one of the drop-in sessions, they can spin their own online,” Adcock said.
“We’ve made this really accessible because we do want this to be a destination management plan reflective of our communities.”
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
🧩😏 Riddle me this, Neighbours…
I am an odd number. Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I?
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Poll: Canterbury is thriving on paper... but are you seeing evidence of Canterbury's improving economy?
As reported in the Press, Reserve Bank Governor Anna Breman recently gave a shout-out to our region, calling Canterbury a "stand-out" for how we recover from tough times. With tech firms growing and exporters investing, the business side of things is looking bright!
👉 But we know that "business growth" doesn't always mean the weekly shop gets any cheaper. While the city expands, many families feel like they’re just trying to keep their heads above water.
We want to know: With the business buzz of 2026, do you feel like things are finally looking up for your household, or does it still feel like a climb?
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21.2% Yes
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60.6% No
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18.2% In some areas ...
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