About 5300 people attended the Kāpiti Sustainable Home and Garden Show last weekend with thousands arriving in the first few hours of the event.
The Show, an annual event since 2006, is coordinated by the Kāpiti Coast District Council.
“This Council event focuses on demonstrating sustainable options where people can get new ideas and solutions, products or advice tailored to their lifestyle and budgetary needs,” Mayor Jenny Rowan said.
“We put a lot of effort into the show and we believe it pays off in increasing knowledge and awareness of sustainability in our community,” she said.
The award for the Most Sustainably Focused Site went to the Seedy Sunday group, organised by Anna Butterfield, which holds plant and seed swaps each Sunday.
The award for the Most Professionally Displayed Site went to Jane Drysdale and Coastal Landscaping Supplies.
This year’s special guest speaker was Lynda Hallinan, editor of New Zealand Gardener, who combined a broad knowledge of gardening with a passion for people to live more sustainable lives.
She advised her audience to grow more vegetables, barter with their home-grown produce for other goods, and to get chickens for egg production.
Her question and answer session on gardening attracted a large crowd and it was her common sense approach to keeping the food budget down and sustainability up that struck a chord with her audience
Other workshops, information tents and traders saw steady flows of visitors. Organiser Di Traynor said despite the weather, which was threatening to rain on Saturday and blowing a gale on Sunday, she had received good feedback from vendors.
“We had a new layout which helped direct visitors around the whole site enabling them to source information, products and services they might otherwise have missed.”
The Council tents at the Show covered issues such as ensuring people were enrolled in time for voting later this year, teaching people about water use and conservation and information on ways to be more eco-friendly in their home.
Activities for children were popular and they were able to follow a treasure hunt going to different tents to learn about sustainability before having their “passports” stamped.
In the “Wearable Art” competition the Primary School Winners were Louis and Austin from Te Ra School while the College Winners were Ariana and Justice from Kāpiti College.
“A lot of time and effort had gone into the costumes by all the contestants,” Di Traynor said.
