Tararua will celebrate its 30 years of becoming a district this week with a series of high teas beginning today.
Getting right behind the high tea celebrations is Tararua Mayor Tracey Collis, who is sharing her collection of bone china tea cups and saucers for the events.
"We held a high tea in September last year to celebrate the 125th anniversary of women's suffrage in New Zealand. It was so successful and well received that we decided to use the same idea to mark the district's 30 years."
At a council meeting where the celebrations were discussed Collis said it had been hoped to hold a larger celebration but this was decided against.
"We need to be mindful of how we spend council money," she said.
The high teas will also provide an opportunity for people to meet the newly elected councillors and community board members.
The first high tea will be held in Pongaroa at 10am today at the Pongaroa Community Hall.
Next on the list is high tea at Herbertville. This will start at 2pm and will be held in the Herbertville Community Hall.
There will be three high teas tomorrow, the first at Woodville at 10am in the Woodville Community Hall, the second at Norsewood at 12.30pm in the War Memorial Hall and the final one for the day in Dannevirke at 3pm in the Tararua Business Network.
On Friday, the district's southern towns will have their celebrations. Eketahuna is the first at 10am in the Eketahuna Community Hall followed by the Pahiatua high tea at 1.30pm in the Pahiatua Service Centre.
Tararua District customer service representative administration and events Mercedes Waitere is part of the team co-ordinating the high teas.
She says they will be informal events at which the mayor will speak.
To mark the 30-year district celebration the council has sponsored a district-wide photography competition based on the theme What does Tararua District mean to you.
The competition opened in January to cover each season of the year and was open to all, from primary age and above.
Waitere says there have been a good number of entries and the winning photographs will be displayed at the high teas.
Selected images from the entries will be included in a limited edition book entitled Images and Icons of Tararua District.
The overall winning image will be used on the front page of the book.