Finalists Of New Zealand’s Most Beautiful Towns And Cities Announced

Keep New Zealand Beautiful have announced the finalists and recipients of their Beautiful Awards 2023, including Aotearoa’s Most Beautiful Towns and Most Beautiful Cities.

The iconic not-for-profit organisation has held the Beautiful Awards annually since 1972. For over half a century the Awards have provided a benchmark for environmental excellence, celebrating the sustainability achievements of the many individuals, schools, communities, towns and cities across the country, who have put in the mahi over that time to Keep New Zealand Beautiful.

"New Zealanders across the country have nominated the people, projects and places that they believe illustrate the height of environmental excellence in Aotearoa into this year's Beautiful Awards", says Keep New Zealand Beautiful CEO Heather Saunderson. "The Awards are a chance for Kiwis to put their community on the map and to celebrate a stand-out sustainability initiative in their town or city."

"Through the Beautiful Awards we’re able to celebrate the efforts of local government as well as those made by community groups, schools and individuals who are all striving to maintain and improve New Zealand’s environment," said Ms Saunderson. "This collective contribution is key to maintaining the biodiversity of Aotearoa and to creating a waste and climate conscious future for the next generations of Tidy Kiwis."

The pinnacle of the Awards is the Most Beautiful Towns & Cities category, which recognises and rewards councils who’ve demonstrated a commitment to environmental improvement over the past 12 months. Kiwis were asked to nominate an urban area that they believed stood out for its excellence in sustainability and to provide an explanation as to why, with a specific focus on litter prevention, waste minimisation, community beautification and recycling initiatives.

"We’re thrilled to have had such an enthusiastic response, with so many impressive nominations across each Award category flooding in right up until the close date," said Ms Saunderson. "It’s incredibly heartening to see the commitment and innovation that councils have shown across beautification and waste minimisation initiatives, as well as the way in which they’ve tackled many of today’s environmental issues through their climate change strategies."

Judging criteria

The Awards judges chose the Towns & Cities finalists based on the number of nominations as a percentage of population, the strength of their litter prevention/waste minimisation initiatives, community beautification projects and recycling projects. All four categories held an equal 25% weighting.

This year, the Most Beautiful Towns & Cities Awards were aligned with the urban area classifications used by Stats NZ for statistical purposes:

• Most Beautiful Small Town (small urban area with 1,000 - 9,999 residents),
• Most Beautiful Large Town (medium urban area with 10,000 - 29,999 residents),
• Most Beautiful Small City (large urban area 30,000 – 99,999 residents) and
• Most Beautiful Large City (major urban area with 100,000 or more residents).

An award for the Most Beautiful Tiny Town was added to the Towns & Cities category this year, in acknowledgment of the many tiny towns throughout New Zealand with populations under 1,000 who are punching above their weight with regard to their environmental achievements.

Once again this year, the Supreme Towns & Cities Award, proudly sponsored by Resene, will celebrate the overall winner of the Most Beautiful Towns & Cities category. The Supreme Award recipient will win a mural painted in their town or city by a local artist, valued at up to $10,000.

All Beautiful Awards winners and recipients (the full list available in notes below) will be announced at the Beautiful Ball to be held at Parliament House on Thursday 9 November 2023.

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