The mighty Waikato region is a place of powerful possibilities.
Forged by a proud history and shared excitement about the future, we grow and celebrate world-changers, local innovators and inspiring champions. They embrace our guiding philosophy of mahia te mahi – to get the job done.
In a world hungry for new technology and pure produce, we hold prime position.
Our smart, fast-growing city and vibrant rural towns are connected in a diverse landscape that is fertile and ripe for discovery.
Waikato is our turangawaewae; the place where we stand. Here, family is nurtured. Friends are welcomed with open hearts, and life can be easily enjoyed to the full.
This is our place.
This is your place.
Welcome to Waikato, the beating heart of New Zealand.
Discover the essence of Waikato: a place of powerful possibilities, where mahia te mahi; ‘getting the job done’ is in our DNA. Here family is nurtured, visitors are welcomed as friends and life can be enjoyed to the full. Find out more about our people, our place.
Defining our personality
As a community we uncovered the personality and tone of voice for the Waikato region. See what the Waikato stands for and use assets and images to help tell your business story.
Mighty
We’re proud of our bold history and excited about our future. We’re the beating heart of New Zealand - strong but quiet achievers, always up for the challenge. Bring it on, we say!
Can-Do
The Waikato has a never-stand-still culture that allows businesses, farmers, growers, educational institutions, communities and individuals to make, create and grow. We embrace mahia te mahi as a guiding philosophy; we’re a place that gets the job done, where clever thinking and genuine opportunity meets hard graft. We’re always up for the challenge.
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Compelling
We want people to say: “I didn’t know the Waikato had so much to discover. Lush, fertile landscapes, the rich diversity of the region and a deep-rooted sense of türangawaewae (place to stand). There’s always so much going on. The people are open, enthusiastic and welcoming. It’s a place of surprising opportunities. Let’s explore!”
How we created the Waikato Story
We encouraged and embraced participation from a very wide range of people and organisations – over 200 in total – to ensure our story would be both rich and representative of the diversity of our region. To do this we commissioned an independent branding agency to facilitate the process in order to keep it fair and open.
There were four stages involved:
- the Waikato attributes – who we are today and our aspirations for tomorrow
- Workshop outputs
- Key story elements
- The story framework
We ran four workshops: Te Aroha, Hamilton, Taupō, and Waikato iwi and youth with representation from business/agribusiness, the arts, community funders, environment groups, sports, agencies, education, health, tourism and local government.
News
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Spotlight on Te Kaarearea special housing area
The Waikato Housing Initiative is proud to be part of Te Kaarerea Special Housing area we take a look at what makes it so unique:
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Office expansions, recruitment drive, awards: law firm’s growth trajectory continues
Law firm Tompkins Wake has started off the year managing office expansions and a recruitment drive, on the back of a slew of awards last year. More and more, this Hamilton-headquartered firm is making its mark as a Waikato success story.
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Making a feast
Denise Irvine talks to Vicki Ravlich-Horan and Julia Clarke about putting Feast on the Waikato’s Easter table The motivation is simple: run a key event at Easter that celebrates the Waikato’s amazing food and producers, make it a joyous occasion that builds pride in the region. The challenge is harder: find the money, the sponsorship, the people, places and producers to make it fly.
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Behind the scenes with New Zealand's school lunch programme
New Zealand’s healthy lunch in schools programme, Ka Ora, Ka Ako aims to deliver lunches to around 200,000 primary and secondary students by the end of this year, and Wintec is training people to implement it at schools and kura.