Love Your Coast Waiheke Island | Sustainable Coastlines

Event impacts

Event Details

From 23 February to 6 March our team delivered our proven ‘Love your Coast’ educational presentation to schools from both Waiheke Island and South Auckland and coordinated nine clean-ups on Waiheke Island. These events involved over 400 students from six South Auckland schools as well as kids from Waiheke High School, Waiheke Playcentre and the Kiwi Conservation Club.

Through this project we enabled 294 students from Manukau Harbour-based schools the opportunity to travel to Waiheke Island; a special experience for all. For many this was the first time they had been on a boat and for some, this was the first time they had been to the beach. This was an extremely impactful learning opportunity for the students and a highly rewarding experience for all involved.

By working with Year 9 students from the Sustainability Team from Waiheke High School as youth leaders and hosts for some of the South Auckland-based schools we were able to provide an even richer learning experience and a great opportunity to collaborate.

Our project finale — a huge community clean-up on Saturday 8 March — saw over 200 volunteers and 16 boats turn-up to clean-up the island. In all over the two week project, 607 volunteers were involved in the Love your Coast Waiheke Island clean-up events and 1,240 students received our educational presentation. Volunteers removed 18,000 litres (1,580 kilograms) of rubbish from Waiheke’s coastlines: equivalent to well over half of a shipping container worth of litter!

This rubbish was then sorted and categorised with the assistance of Department of Corrections Community Probation Service workers at The Concourse transfer station in West Auckland, an effort that provided critical understanding of the worst offending products and allowed us to separate materials for artwork projects and recycling. A full breakdown of the results is provided in our project report, which can be downloaded through the link at the right hand side of this page.

We ran workshops with 55 from Waiheke High and Primary Schools to create an artwork from rubbish which was unveiled at the Waiheke Jazz Festival on April 19, along with a percussion “set” performed on instruments made from coastal debris by William Ricketts and Chris O’Connor from indie rock band Phoenix Foundation.

We would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone who took part in this project; we truly were impressed with the results.

 

Media

 

 


 

Thanks to our sponsors

A huge thank you to all of the awesome organisations that have supported this event: without you we simply could not make this event happen. Thanks to Benefitz, Bayleys, Keen Footwear, Auckland Council, Sealink, LUSH, Kwik-N-Ezy, Seaweek, Carlton Party Hire, The Bay, Ceres Organics and the Waiheke Island Jazz Festival. A special thanks to Sarah at Ocean Aware for helping us pull this event together.

 


 

Event follow-up

Following the clean-up activities all rubbish will be counted and categorised to create powerful data proving which materials and products are the worst offenders and providing interesting statistics for media. Materials separated will also be put aside for school students to create artworks out of the rubbish. The entire project will be filmed and edited into a short film that will be displayed, along with the final artwork produced out of rubbish from the clean-up, at the Waiheke Jazz Festival from 19-21 April 2014, similar to our trash-to-art project displayed during Art in the Dark in November 2013.

 


 

Event details

As part of Seaweek 2014 Sustainable Coastlines is coordinating Love your Coast Waiheke Island, a large-scale education and beach clean-up project. From 3 to 7 March 2014 we’re working with schools, community groups and businesses, delivering our proven educational presentation and working hands on to clean-up this epic stretch of coastline.

On Saturday 8 March the project culminates with a huge public event day with clean-ups at locations all around the island. We would love you to be involved. We’re looking for volunteers to join the clean-up effort and for boats to ferry volunteers to hard-to-access beaches.

Your registration allows us to plan where to send volunteers and boats on the day. We have limited spaces available on boats so please don’t be disappointed if you miss out!

Details for Saturday 8 March

From 8.00am – 2.00pm, volunteers are asked to meet our team at any of our three Event Stations to register and pick-up rubbish sacks and gloves. Free lunch packs for the first 150 to turn up, so get in quick! Look for our big blue flags. Meeting points are:

  • Ostend Market, Belgium Street, Ostend
  • Matiatia Bay, just outside Ferry Terminal
  • Kennedy Point Wharf, Donald Bruce Road, Kennedy Point

See map of all Event Stations here. Following the clean-up all are invited to come together from 5.00pm at The Bay, 10 Ocean View Rd, Matiatia, to celebrate the day and week’s activities with food and entertainment. Epic spot-prizes will be up for grabs, including tickets to the Waiheke Jazz Festival where we’ll unveil an artwork made from the rubbish that you help us collect! 

 


 

What to bring

  • Sturdy shoes: this area has some challenging coastal terrain. You’ll need closed-toe, sturdy shoes (such as sneakers, sports shoes or tramping boots).
  • Warm and waterproof clothes: NZ weather is unpredictable. Bring at least one warm top (ideally old woollen) and a rain jacket.
  • Sun hat and sun cream.
  • Reusable water bottle (filled-up and ready to go).
  • Packed lunch and snacks.
  • Camera (optional) – this is a unique and beautiful location and we’d love to see your photos. Use #loveyourcoast on social media or email to [email protected]

 


 

Getting there

Sealink are kindly offering registered participants a special deal for the weekend of $150 for a car and two passengers return (perfect for bringing your kayak, SUP board or boat over for the event). To get this special just call 0800 732 546 to make your booking and mention our event. Passenger fares are only $20 return. To get this discounted rate, simply turn up to the Saturday morning sailing and let Sealink staff know you’re part of our event.

Check out the Sealink ferry sailings from Wynyard Quarter* to Kennedy Point and the Fullers sailings from the Downtown Ferry Terminal to Matiatia.

*Note that Sealink operates sailings from the Wynyard Quarter only on Friday nights and weekends, so if you would like to travel outside of these times you will need to travel from Half Moon Bay.

 


 

Accommodation

For out of towners who’d like to stay a night or two on this iconic island, local legends have offered these sweet specials on places to rest your head:

  • Bioshelter Backpackers, 33 Pacific Parade, Oneroa. $25 per person / night (minimum 2 nights).
  • Punga Lodge, 223 Oceanview Rd, Oneroa. 20% discount (minimum 2 nights).
  • Kina Backpackers, 421 Seaview Rd, Onetangi. $25 per person / night (minimum 2 nights).

 


 

Information for Boaties

If you’ve registered to bring your boat along on Saturday 8 March, thanks! We will be in touch to arrange when and where to pick-up rubbish sacks, gloves and volunteers (if you have space).

If you have indicated on our registration form that you are willing to take volunteers on your boat, we will be in touch with you to confirm arrangements. Any questions feel free to contact Chris Cochrane directly on 027 469 7080 or email [email protected].

 


 

Based on Waiheke?

If you’re based on the island and would like to join the fun, either during the week or on the Saturday, we’d love your help. From Monday 3 to Friday 7 March, 9.00am – 5.00pm, rubbish sacks and more event information will be available at the following spots:

  • Matiatia Information Centre, Matiatia Wharf.
  • Waiheke Service Centre, Auckland Council Office, 10 Belgium St, Ostend.
  • Bayleys Office, 145 Oceanview Rd, Oneroa.

 


 

Event sponsorship opportunities

We’re also looking for caring corporates to get behind the project. We need to raise funds to cover essential logistical, health & safety and administrative costs to ensure this project’s success. Event sponsorship is therefore vital. Check out our event sponsorship opportunities below to see how we can work together.

We offer event sponsors:

  • A tailored team building beach clean-up activity with your staff, led by Sustainable Coastlines, including our multimedia educational presentation to motivate your staff to get involved. We bring all equipment, however some additional hard costs may apply depending on numbers and location (such as food and transport).
  • License to Sustainable Coastlines logos for use on web, marketing and other promotional materials during the course of the event.
  • Personalised rubbish breakdown and event report with metrics achieved through educational work (great for CSR / sustainability reporting and marketing).
  • Access and permission to use all event images, footage and results.
  • Exposure through logo positioning on:
    • Billboard on top of our ‘Education Station’ mobile classroom which will be in a prominent position in Auckland CBD’s Wynyard Quarter leading up to the event. See more about the ‘Education Station’ here.
    • This page: the official event page.
    • Promotional posters and flyers.
    • Announcement and exposure of your organisation’s support to Sustainable Coastlines’ social media networks (combined audience of 8,900).
    • Opportunity to provide marketing material, run competitions and/or provide giveaways at events. (Materials used in giveaways must be mutually agreed – with responsible packaging etc).
    • Further leveraging opportunities to be discussed.

 

Event sponsorship is available at two levels:

$500: Event supporter
Includes all of the above.

$2,000: Principal event sponsor
Includes all of the above and in addition:

  • More prominent logo positioning on all event collateral.
  • Announcement of your support to our mailing list (3,600 subscribers).
  • Mention on event media releases (we have a very large profile in the media – see examples here)
  • Mention of your brand during media interviews wherever possible.
  • Logo appearance on the big screen during movie screening.

 

What next?

Please call Camden Howitt on 021 212 7287 or email [email protected] if you are interested in this opportunity or would like any further information.