Arrowtown guardianship
Arrowtown’s community works hard to protect and enhance what makes Arrowtown so special
We encourage our visitors to get involved during their stay. There are several ways to get involved in Arrowtown (Kā-Muriwai) guardianship (kitiakitanga) from contributing to the Love Queenstown fund, volunteering, or simply following the principles of the Tiaki Promise.
Love Queenstown fund
Visiting Queenstown or Arrowtown? Love Queenstown is a local giving platform, raising funds to support climate, conservation, and biodiversity initiatives within the wider Queenstown region, enabling us to protect and regenerate our unique and fragile alpine environment, now and into the future. Find out how you can lend a hand or a dollar to support local environmental mahi.
Tiaki Promise
The Tiaki Promise is an Aotearoa-wide declaration for visitors and locals alike to care for our environment, people and culture, to protect it for future generations. Tiaki is a Māori word that loosely means to care, conserve and protect.
We encourage you to follow the guiding principles of the Tiaki promise, including respecting our environment and communities with responsible camping in our beautiful town.
Carbon zero 2030
Arrowtown and the wider Queenstown Lakes District community supports the ambitious goal of making the district’s tourism economy carbon zero by 2030. This is a collective goal and forms part of a wider plan to achieve regenerative tourism – in other words, tourism which enhances and improves our place for locals and visitors alike for generations to come.
Community action
Predator control
Predator Free Arrowtown’s trapping programme aims to get rid of pests like weasels, stoats, possums and rats which are harmful to our native birdlife. The group has traplines high into the mountains to create a sanctuary for native creatures in and around Arrowtown. The traplines pose no danger to people walking in the area. Locals also help with the trapping programme by ‘adopting’ a trapline and making sure it is baited and cleared often.
Waste minimisation
Arrowtown is working towards SUC-free status, meaning eventually we’ll send no single-use cups (SUC) to landfill. Coffee drinkers are encouraged to stay at cafés to drink their coffee or takeaway in a reusable cup. The town also has water refill stations for reusable water bottles. Several eateries also have their food waste collected by local resident Michael Sly who turns it into “Arrowtown Gold” compost. This compost is donated to volunteer groups for community planting days, and available for locals to purchase along with mulch made from wilding conifers and leftover coffee grains.
Native plantings
Each year in spring and autumn, the Whakatipu Reforestation Trust calls for community volunteers to help with its native planting days. They plant native trees using seedlings from the Trust’s nursery at Kelvin Heights at several locations around Arrowtown – Feehly Hill, Whitechapel, Bush Creek and Lake Hayes. The aim is to create wildlife corridors that attract native birds and insects, significantly enhancing biodiversity.
Wilding tree control
The Arrowtown Choppers and the Arrowtown Wilding Group have been working hard to remove wilding pines which were taking over the hillsides around Arrowtown. To retain the magnificent autumnal colours that Arrowtown is famous for, the groups plant non-invasive exotics as well as native plants along the hillside which cope well in an alpine climate.
Be a part of our unique story
During your stay in Arrowtown, we’d love for you to get involved in helping retain the beauty and splendour of our home and give back to our region. Or connect with our heart and soul and attend community events, markets and chat to our locals. Come experience Arrowtown and leave with more than just memories – leave with a connection.
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