Upcoming Events
View each event for ticketing & registration
Wao Summit 2026 Programme Launch
You're invited to Wao's Summit Programme Launch event, a friendly gathering of our audience, partners, volunteers, stakeholders and supporters. Join us as we launch early bird tickets and the programme for this year's event and enjoy mingling over drinks at the fun and fabulous Rhyme & Reason. We are looking forward to seeing you there!
Better Building Banter: Beyond the Build + Post Build Training Module Release
Better Building Banter: Beyond the Build + Post Build Training Module Release
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 2.
Better Building Smoko: Better Building in Practice + On Site Training Module Release
Better Building Smoko: Better Building in Practice with GJ Gardner + On Site Training Module Release
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 2.
Wao Aotearoa AGM
Join us at our AGM
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 2.
Better Building Training Series: Integrated Design Webinar + Training Module
Intergrated Design + Live Webinar. Full details coming soon.
Green Drinks: Growing Local Food Networks
Meet and connect with fellow gardeners, hunters, fishers, foragers and food preservers. Build relationships that help fill pantries, freezers and fridges with locally produced food while strengthening community resilience.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 2.
Better Building Training Series: Pre-Planning & Materials Selection Webinar + Training Module
Pre-Planning & Materials Selection + Live Webinar. Full details coming soon.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 2.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 2.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 2.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 2.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 2.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 2.
Better Building Brekkie: Training Series Launch
Join us for a free breakfast at the launch of This Is How We Build – a new online training series designed to support the building industry to build smarter, cleaner, and more circular at every stage.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 2.
Green Drinks: Resilience Response
The global ripple effects of the Iran conflict are already being felt here in Aotearoa. Join Wao Aotearoa at the next Green Drinks, which brings this conversation to the local level.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 1.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 1.
Wao Harvest Festival
Join Wao’s Annual Harvest Festival Weekend in Wānaka on 14–15 March 2026! Enjoy workshops, foraging tours, and food experiences celebrating local growers, seasonal abundance, and resilient food systems. Perfect for families, friends, and food enthusiasts.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 1.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 1.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 1.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 1.
Friday Bike Bus
The Wao Aotearoa Bike Bus is a supervised, weekly group ride to school designed to make active travel safe, social, and enjoyable for children and families in the Upper Clutha. Running every Friday morning during Term 1.
Wao Summit 2025
Bringing New Zealand’s leading change makers, climate experts, bold ideas, and real-world solutions to Queenstown and Wānaka to shape how we live, lead, and thrive in 2125. Climate action, system change, and stronger communities start here.
Wao Film Night - Think Like A Forest
South Island Premiere of Think Like A Forest
Join us for a powerful evening of film and conversation exploring nature-based climate solutions in Aotearoa. Curated and hosted by Wao, in partnership with Pure Advantage and WAI Wānaka, the feature of the evening is the premiere of Think Like a Forest, a compelling new documentary that makes the case for the Recloaking Papatūānuku initiative, an urgent and ambitious programme to restore our indigenous forests and wetlands at scale.
Join hunter, fisher and bushman Sam The Trap Man on a journey as he profiles the deep connections people have with native forests and the role they play in building resilience in our landscapes for climate and community .
We’ll also screen a new short film from WAI Wānaka and host a kōrero with Simon Millar (Producer of Think Like a Forest and Executive Director for Pure Advantage) and David Norton (ecologist), moderated by Jose Cranfield (WAI Wānaka).
Join us from 6pm-7pm, and enjoy a chance to mingle with like-minded attendees and our guest speakers. We’ll have nibbles on offer, and the bar will be open. The event kicks off at 7pm sharp.
Special No Frills Screening – the 7pm Think Like a Forest event sold out, so we’re adding a 5.30pm screening with a brief intro from Simon Millar and David Norton. Stick around afterwards for drinks, nibbles, and casual conversation with the crew. Tickets can be found HERE.
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Pure Advantage has for over a decade delivered quality research-based campaigns that have led the conversation for green growth in New Zealand. The impact of Recloaking Papatūānuku has enabled Pure Advantage to bring together the key stakeholders and be a catalyst for action in the Nature-based Solutions and native forest restoration space.
Pure Advantage is ready to launch the next phase in communicating the Recloaking Papatūānuku initiative; Think Like a Forest - a journey with Sam the Trap Man for Recloaking Papatūānuku.
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Recloaking Papatūānuku is an ambitious, national-scale environmental initiative that will mobilise people to help retain the incredible old growth forests we already have, and restore and enhance new and degraded native forests and wetlands across more than two million hectares of Aotearoa in the next 30 years.
Restoration, regeneration, planting, and long term management of native forests and wetlands will increase the resilience of our landscapes to the effects of climate change, ensure our productive lands and communities thrive, enhance our native biodiversity and sequester atmospheric CO2.
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Think Like a Forest is a film about the incredible, diverse native forests in Aotearoa and all of their benefits. Yet, over two thirds of New Zealand’s native forests are already gone and more are being damaged because of human activity.
In Think Like a Forest, we present the vision for a regenerative future where humans can change this destructive trajectory through connecting with nature and taking action for Recloaking Papatūānuku. Think Like a Forest brings Recloaking Papatūānuku to life.
Our leader on this part of the journey is Sam the Trap Man. Sam is a father and self-described bushman - part hunter, trapper, fisher, forager and conservationist, an expert when it comes to the bush. He will take us to two areas of Aotearoa that are typical of the issues and challenges we face to share his knowledge and talk with kaitiaki of these ecosystems to show how we can all “think like a forest” to support and connect with nature.
Guest Speakers
DAVID NORTON: Emeritus Professor David Norton is a leading ecologist supporting native biodiversity on farms, working with farmers and industry to enable win-wins for climate and conservation. David lives in Lake Hāwea.
SIMON MILLAR: Simon Millar is the Executive Director of Pure Advantage an NGO focussed on presenting sustainable pathways for New Zealand in a low carbon economy. He is also the Producer of Think Like a Forest, a new documentary film that brings to life Recloaking Papatūānuku an ambitious environmental initiative for large-scale ecological restoration of native forests and wetlands across Aotearoa.
CAT DILLON: Cat is the CEO of WAI Wānaka, with a background in ecology, biosecurity and the UK water industry. She’s passionate about connecting people to the water that sustains them and making it easier for communities to take action for their environment.
JOSE CRANFIELD: Jose brings water chemistry expertise and a passion for resilient communities, connecting people and ideas at WAI Wānaka to protect our lakes and streams.
Jose will moderate the panel conversation on the night.