Treats of Taupō 2024: inaugural food festival a success, plans for bigger event next year

Brantry Eatery took part in The Treat Degustation Tour during the Treats of Taupō festival. Photo / That Green Olive

The inaugural Treats of Taupō food festival has been deemed a success by the organisers who are already looking at expanding the event next year.

During September and October, Treats of Taupō showcased local eateries, businesses and producers with 23 events, ranging from a progressive dinner to cooking demonstrations and food tastings.

The festival is the brainchild of Treat.nz founder and Taupō local Fleur Wolstenholme who said she wanted to put the town on the foodie map.

“People don’t think of Taupō as a food destination, but we have quite a lot, including amazing producers, distilleries, breweries, chocolate and coffee,” Wolstenholme said.

“The Bay of Plenty has Flavour of the Plenty, Wellington has Welly on a Plate, but Taupō didn’t really have anything like that.”

She said Treat.nz was all about supporting local businesses and eateries, and after having run events in Christchurch, Auckland and Taupō, she wanted to do something “on a bigger scale” for the local community.

“We’ve got quite a lot going on in Taupō, there are lots of events, but nothing food and drink related, so I thought, why don’t we do a food festival.”

Wolstenholme said the idea was well-received with over 40 food and drink businesses participating in the nine-day event.

“It went really well, the community really wanted to get behind it. We had lots of positive feedback and a few sell-out events. It was a big effort from everyone.”

Treats of Taupō founder Fleur Wolstenholme is keen to showcase the regions culinary delights.

She said the most popular event had been a degustation tour through several local restaurants which all provided one course, similar to a progressive dinner.

“That was really successful and sold out. It’s definitely going to happen next year. The Greek Night was also good fun, the Indian Street Food Night was amazing, too.”

Talking about the future, Wolstenholme said, the goal for next year’s Treats of Taupō was to double the number of events.

“We are already thinking about next year and how to make it bigger and better, but it’s a bit early to say what that’s going to look like,” she said.

“Expanding the event could be an idea, so that it could happen twice a year, in winter and spring for example, with seasonal ingredients.

“We had lots of local feedback, but getting out-of-towners to come to Taupō for this event would be cool, and seeing it grow as big as Flavours of the Plenty, ... having it as an identifying event for the town, that would be amazing.”

Danielle Zollickhofer is a multimedia journalist and assistant news director at the Waikato Herald. She joined NZME in 2021 and is based in Hamilton.