Mr Pickles Bar & Eatery which took the best eatery/bar award at the Hamilton Central Awards held earlier this year. Photo / Shaun Jeffers
Waikato has an impressive legacy of winning, both nationally and internationally.
Many individuals and organisations that call Waikato home are consistently on the winner's podium - from leading tourism businesses and creative artists and musicians to local food producers, superstar chefs and winning winemakers, to Olympic champion rowers, kayakers and champion thoroughbred horses.
As a special congratulations to our mighty local winners and to celebrate the ongoing buzz and greater sense of wellbeing that comes with success, the Waikato Herald has teamed up with Hamilton & Waikato Tourism to spread the good word about some of the region's recent tourism and foodie champions.
Care for our precious environment is a natural win not only for our land and wildlife but also for our people and communities. Two leading Waikato businesses have collected national awards for their ongoing work in this arena.
Discover Waitomo has received Recreation Aotearoa's Tiakina Taiao award for environmental leadership honouring its kaitiaki of the Waitomo Glowworm Cave, Ruakuri Cave and Aranui Cave. The company has long taken care to protect the environment it welcomes visitors into and lower its footprint overall. An environmental team oversees climate monitoring systems in the caves as well as environmental education programmes.
In the most recent Tourism Industry New Zealand awards, Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari won the community engagement category.
Judges said with its broad community reach and true engagement Sanctuary Mountain's model is how tourism should be in New Zealand, adding that what has been achieved at the maunga is a true point of difference on the world stage, and the kind of offering to make all New Zealanders proud.
Sanctuary Mountain also received a gong in the Waikato Chamber of Commerce Business Awards, as did Jet Park Hotel Hamilton Airport.
The stunning four-level extension to the Novotel Hamilton Hotel has taken gold in this year's New Zealand Commercial Project Awards.
Featuring a dramatic cultural design on the exterior, the addition adds a further 40 rooms to the hotel. The distinctive façade tells the story of the annual migration of tuna (eel) in the Waikato River which the hotel overlooks. This design approach is carried throughout the hotel's interior where colour, materials, texture and art reflect the relationship of the iwi with its tupuna awa (ancestral river).
Another consistent Waikato winner is the New Zealand National Fieldays Society with its flagship Fieldays event at Mystery Creek. A recent award has been bronze in the Virtual Expo category in the Global Eventex Awards for the Fieldays Online event that was staged in 2020 when the Covid pandemic meant the live four-day event could not be held.
The University of Waikato is a leader in many areas including science and climate change and teaching, having been recently ranked in the top 100 in the world in the 2022 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings. The accolade honours the university's contribution to the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals, with this world-class success positioning it to attract even more students and high-quality staff.
Although winners will not be announced until Wednesday next week (27 July), there are four Waikato businesses that are finalists in the coveted 2022 Hospitality Awards for Excellence.
SkyCity Hamilton is a finalist in the best entertainment venue category while Five Stags in Leamington, Cambridge, has been named as a excellence in gaming finalist.
Best local finalists are Smith & McKenzie Steak House in Chartwell and The Keg Room in Rototuna while Cambridge's Olympic Village-inspired Podium Lodge is named in the best accommodation other category.
The Hamilton Central Awards held earlier this year turned into quite a night for popular Cream Eatery. Cream won the supreme best of the best award as well as the best café and best social media categories.
Other winners included Mr Pickles Bar & Eatery, which took the best eatery/bar award, while Bowl & Social at SkyCity was named best leisure and entertainment.
Mr Pickles, together with Alpino in Cambridge, was also named as a restaurant to watch in this year's prestigious Cuisine magazine Good Food Awards, while judges awarded Palate two hats for being consistently outstanding.
With fertile soils and a temperate climate, Waikato is one of New Zealand's most productive food growing regions.
It's no surprise then that many of Waikato's proudly local artisan food producers regularly collect national and international awards.
Amongst the regular winners in recent years has been one the region's artisan cheese makers, Meyer Cheese, who scooped up a number of trophies at the NZ Champions of Cheese 2022 Awards for their Fenugreek, Smoked Gouda and Goats Milk Gouda.
In this year's Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer Awards, which celebrates Kiwis who grow, harvest and make food and beverages, family-owned Sweetree Honey in Gordonton took home two medals - silver for its Kirikiriroa Honey and bronze for its Ohinewai Honey. Judges also highly commended Sweetree for its impressive all-round commitment to sustainability and to supporting its local community.
Hunt & Gather Bee Co, a sustainable raw honey producer based in Raglan recently won a silver medal for their signature Kānuka honey at the 2022 London International Honey Awards.
Another family-run local business, Vilagrad Wines, is also celebrating a recent win, having taken the silver medal with its pinot gris in the London International Wine and Spirits Competition, regarded globally as the Olympics of wine awards.
Based in Frankton, Hamilton, Good George Brewing is no stranger to tributes, collecting lots of awards each year.
Its latest beer award is the best New Zealand India Pale Ale trophy in the annual Smith's craft beer competitions.
Good George's artisan gins are standouts too, regularly winning in the New Zealand Spirit Awards as well as the London Spirits Competition. Recently the company has collected gold, silver and bronze for its locally crafted gins, and a vodka.
Along with the winning botanical-infused flavours, the fun names Good George gives its beverages are also sure to catch the attention of judges. A Day Off Doris Plum Gin anyone? Or a Cruisey Kawakawa?
Duck Island Ice Cream, founded by chefs and ice cream lovers who are always playing with flavour combinations, is a winner too. Most recently Duck Island won two People's Choice categories in the New Zealand Ice Cream awards - one for its Fairy Bread ice cream and the other for its scoop shop in Hamilton East.
The company has also been successful at the annual Dairy Free Awards, as has Raglan Food Company (Raglan Yoghurt). Raglan Food Co were also named Overall Supreme Award and Employee Development Award winners in the 2022 Primary Industries Good Employer Awards.
Ka pai mighty Waikato! He wahi nui kei runga noa ake – There is always room at the top.
All the action as the Crusaders and Chiefs clash for the title.