Category: News

This month, we celebrate four years of Wānaka Community Workshop. Thanks to the incredible support of our community, we’ve transformed from a humble idea in 2020 to a thriving hub of creativity, learning, and connection.

Together, we’ve created a place where people can learn new skills, make intergenerational connections, and help shift towards a circular economy. Whether it’s youth, older adults, or new folks to the area, WCW brings together a mix of people, offering a safe space to connect, learn, and share.

From diverting construction waste from landfill, to fostering mental well-being and providing a welcoming space for everyone, it’s been a team effort — and we couldn’t have done it without you.

The true success of WCW lies in the stories we hear from our participants. People find friendships, learn practical skills, and gain a sense of belonging at the Workshop. These personal stories of growth and connection prove that our efforts are making a tangible difference.

You’ll find our Impact Report on our website and attached to this email, where you can  learn more about our social and environmental impacts over the last 4 years. 

Your support inspires us to keep working together to make Wānaka a place where we reuse valuable materials to produce useful items for our community; and a space where everyone feels included, valued, and is empowered to create positive change. Thank you. 

Ngā mihi nui, 

Ben, Gwilym and Alan

Wānaka Community Workshop Board of Trustees. 

Every library reviews its holdings to make way for new books.

The Queenstown & Lakes Council’s library at Wanaka is no exception.

This week Paula from the Wanaka Library delivered to the Wanaka Community Workshop a selection of books eliminated from their collection of great interest to the MenShed team.

Each contains ideas of how we can utilise building materials in a range of community projects. Over the next few weeks we shall give a few of them a go.

The MenShed team has started the new year with a new project.

Riddling is a technique associated with our wine industry – in particular with the méthode Champenoise or traditional method of making Champagne.

Riddling is a process of periodically rotating a bottle a quarter of a turn while simultaneously tilting it until it’s upside down. This movement causes sediment accumulating inside the bottle to slide down to the neck where it can be removed.

Riddling requires a rack to store bottles – a rack that is designed to permit both turning the bottle but also tilting it to encourage the sediment to slide toward the neck of the bottle.

The rack looks simple but it is a clever design.

This year the team at the MenShed are rehabilitating riddling racks which have worn out over many years of use.

The work avoids the need to dump the racks and replace them.

We heard the outdoor play tables at the Kidsfirst kindergarten Hawea needed some love and attention.

Stu, one of our MenShed team who lives locally, picked the tables up and delivered them to the Wanaka Community Workshop.

Using donated materials it was a quick task to create and attached new tops on each of the three tables.

The play tables are now back in service – a few more years life yet despite the demanding use to which they are put by our growing kids.

Folk at the Wanaka Community Workshop took time out this week to get together in the spirit of Christmas.

Its great to get together with some great kai.

Time also to talk through what we have working together accomplished this year.

While a number of the team will be away over the next few weeks, most will be working through. The team gets together at the Workshop every Tuesday and Thursday from 9am to midday.

Traps are regularly manufactured by the MenShed team operating from the Wanaka Community Workshop.

This is not surprising given the importance of maintaining and enhancing the habitats across the natural environment of the Upper Clutha.

We build and supply traps that meet the demanding requirements Department of Conservation which target stoats and other pests.

We also build rat traps.

Our traps are now deployed across our district – from peoples backyards to remote spots high in our National Parks.

This week the MenShed team are working on another batch designed for DOC 200 traps.

Our team are proud to see their traps out and about making a difference for our endangered wildlife in our local environment.

We receive some odd requests at the Wanaka Community Workshop.

This week the MenShed team crafted a foot – a stencil of the outline of a foot to be precise.

The stencil is to be used to mark a track on the ground running through a busy community market place leading to a particular stall.

We tested the stencil in the yard outside the Workshop. It worked a treat.

Over recent weeks our community across the Upper Clutha have enjoyed a new service – a community shuttle bus service serving Lake Hawea, Hawea Flat, Albertown and Wanaka.

The shuttle bus service is a great initiative led by Community Network Wanaka / Link Upper Clutha.

The service is currently a trial – a trial to see what the demand is should a permanent service be undertaken.

A couple of our MenShed team observed that folk waiting for the bus were standing around.

We thought we could do something about that.

In response the MenShed team have designed and built wooden benches we have placed at some of the bus stops.

The benches were built from pallets collected from local firms which would have otherwise gone to waste.

Its a simple practical and useful use of up cycled materials which will make life just a little more comfortable for the users of the Community Shuttle Bus trial.

Every so often the MenShed team at the Wanaka Community Workshop get handed a challenge.

This week the challenge came in the form of a stool – a stool passed down by a family’s grandmother and looking for some damage repair.

A foot was broken, chipped with peices missing.

A furniture maker and wood craftsman who helped out at the recent Wastebuster Repair Event held at the Workshop did the job.

The MenShed team re-assembled the stool, smoothed the rough edges and delivered it back to a happy family.

A great job all round.

This month Wastebusters held their Sustainable Christmas Market at their Wanaka facility.

The team from the Wanaka Community Workshop created a stall – our first for any market.

We had for sale a range products created from upcycled textiles and construction materials.

Corn Hole Game Boards & throw bags, salad servers & cloth, large and small wooden crates, bike stands and insect hotels proved popular.

It was a great day.

Wastebusters is organisation that makes a strong positive difference for our community across the Upper Clutha.

Its great the teams from across the two organisations work together. We very much appreciate their leadership.

The Wanaka Community Workshop hosts MINT each month.

MINT supports those in Upper Clutha Area with intellectual disabilities.

This month the MINT team started on their largest project at the Workshop – two Corn Hole Game Boards and eight cloth bags with which to play.

The Boards are being built with the support of the MenShed, the cloth bags with the support of the fabrication team.

The aim is to complete the project over two visits – in time for the MINT Christmas Party.

The Wanaka Community Workshop welcomes donations of wood and construction materials.

The MenShed Team use the material to create products which support the local community.

Some of this material is large. Some is small – just off-cuts.

This week the team have been focusing re-using the off-cuts.

We have been building a range of wooden box’s, crates and salad servers.

They will be available at the upcoming Sustainability Market to be held at Wanaka Wastebusters in late November. The funds raised will go toward maintaining equipment within the Workshop.

MINT is an organisation which works with members of our community who have intellectual difficulties.

Every month the MenShed team operating from the Wanaka Community Workshop hosts a visit from MINT. The visit is part of a comprehensive program developed by MINT.

For each visit the MenShed team fabricate a project for our visitors to assemble and finish off. Something that each person can take home.

This month we had a largest number of visitors so far.

Some built planter box’s, others built tool box’s – some built both!

Its great to be part of the MINT program.

This week the Wanaka Community Workshop hosted the Wanaka Repair Event.

The Repair Event was organised and delivered by Wanaka Wastebusters.

The Wanaka Repair Event was one of four similar events that Wanaka Wastebusters have organised across the district.

The Event bought together volunteers who repaired clothing, electrical and electronic goods, bicycles and furniture.

Local volunteers joined others who came from from Queenstown. Some were young and experienced, others old and experienced.

Together they worked to repair items bought in on the day by Wanaka residents.

The Repair Revolution is a great concept. Great for the planet, great for the individual owner.

The Repair Revolution is organised and run by the great team at Whastebusters.

The Wanaka Community Workshop is proud to contribute.

This week the MenShed team hosted a film crew.

The crew were at the Wanaka Community Workshop preparing a video for BREEN Construction.

With their head office in Alexandra BREEN Construction has been a leader of the construction industry across the Upper Clutha since 1939.

Part of that leadership focuses upon minimising construction waste.

The film crew’s video will be used to raise awareness among staff at BREEN Construction as to what each can do to reduce waste.

Its great the Wanaka Community Workshop can contribute to this initiative.

This week Gerald and Jim Bob completed one of the largest projects undertaken by the MenShed team.

Six Dog Boxes.

The Dog Box’s will house dogs that are deployed to manage a range of animal pests across our region.

Each has been built from materials that would have otherwise gone to waste.

Great stuff Gerald and Jim Bob!

This week Wanaka has hosted the WAO Summit as part of the 2022 Festival for Sustaintability.

The Wanaka Community Workshop was an active participant in the Festival.

The Workshop hosted a cycle maintenance event early in October.

During the Summit the Workshop hosted a session focussed upon reducing waste resulting from construction.

Members of the MenShed built a board for a display by the Queenstown Lakes District Council at the Summit. The board was a specially designed version of a corn hole game board – a design which highlighted means we can all adopt to reduce carbon emissions.

Finally members shared their experience and learnings thus far. The Wanaka Community Workshop is new – it has existed for around 18 months.

It’s great to be part of this initiative. Sharing the experience of others working across our community is both beneficial and uplifting.

Every so often folk drop into the Wanaka Community Workshop seeking that something be repaired.

Recently the team from the MenShed completed a stand for a peice of garden art.

It was an important peice, designed and built by their late Dad.

It’s great having the opportunity to make a difference.

A three month trial of a community bus service linking Wanaka, Albert Town Hawea Flat and Lake Hawea is underway.

The trial has been developed by Community Networks / LINK.

This week the Team at the MenShed operating from the Wanaka Community Workshop received a call for help. Could we construct a light but strong and stable stool in order to make it easier for folk to step up into the bus.

The community bus service is a great concept. We were delighted to assist.

During this month the Wanaka Community Workshop hosted a couple of training sessions. Each session attracted people in search of advice on how best to maintain their bikes.

The sessions were part of a much larger Biketober program of events which run right through the month of October.

Biketober is managed and deployed by WAO Wanaka as part of their work to protect healthy ecosystems and community wellbeing.

The particular focus of Biketober is to promote greater use of cycles for transport and recreation.

Its great to see community groups such as WAO Wanaka and the Wanaka Community Workshop collaborate to make a difference for our community.

Pact is a Otago based agency supporting people to lead fulfilling lives in the community.

In our district Pact supports over 300 adults and youth with intellectual disabilities, mental health issues and young people referred from Oranga Tamariki.

Recently the MenShed team hosted our first visit from Pact that included support people along with those whom they work with.

The visit focused on building a wooden toolbox to take home.

Its great to experience community groups working together.

fabricate is up and running at the Wanaka Community Workshop.

fabricate is all about textiles and sewing.

Program’s to teach sewing and pattern making skills has commenced. More are planned.

Members of our community are are dropping in to undertake their own work and repairs.

Its great to see people learning new skills – taking the opportunity offered by the team of fabricate at the Wanaka Community Workshop.

The Wanaka Community Workshop provides a range of opportunities for our local community.

This includes travelers who pass through our town and region.

Recent projects undertaken by the MenShed team have benefited from the time and skills of visitors from France.

As members of the Workshop during their period in Wanaka our visitors took the opportunity to use equipment and tools to improve their motor home.

We loved having them drop in.

Over the last month the MenShed completed a few projects for the Montessori Childrens House in Wanaka.

The projects included a table for kids to practice their wood working skills, a cupboard in which to store their wood working tools and finally, a table upon which they can grow plants and seedlings.

This week Montessori returned the favour – some great, and I mean great, sausage rolls and scones for the team at morning tea.

Greatly appreciated. Thank you Montessori.

Recently the team at the MenShed completed a work table for the kids at Montessori Childrens House – a pre school in Wanaka.

This week a small cupboard was delivered by the team.

Mounted on wheels for easy moving about, the cupboard will store the tools the kids can use on the work table.

Its great to see the kids enjoy their new gear.

Future craftspeople in action!

Grow Wanaka has created vibrant educational hub at their community garden where folk can learn, connect and grow

The community garden is located on Outlet Road, Wanaka – just above the Clutha River.

Community Networks food security project operating from the Wanaka Community Hub have led the development of food banks and food exchanges across the Upper Clutha.

The team from the MenShed have built a number of food bank’s which are now dotted about our community.

The latest has been placed at the Grow Wanaka community garden.

Its great working in collaboration with Community Networks and Grow Wanaka to make a difference in our community.