The Duke and Duchess will compete in a gumboot throw competition after dedicating a protected native forest to the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy at an event hosted by QEII National Trust.

Mike Jebson, QEII National Trust CEO says “we wanted to give the Royal couple a taste of rural New Zealand, and there’s nothing more quintessentially Kiwi than a gumboot throw!”

The Royal couple will captain teams made up of school children who are also planting native trees with the Duke and Duchess as part of the event. Teams will compete for the ‘QEII National Trust Gumboot throw’ trophy, which will be awarded to the winning team to keep.

There has been speculation about the appropriateness of hosting a gumboot throw near Auckland, when Taihape is generally considered to be the gumboot throw capital of New Zealand (and some would say the world!).

“I know gumboot throws are something usually associated with Taihape, but rest assured, we have the blessing of Andrew Watson, Mayor of Rangitikei, to run this competition. Andy was pleased to hear that even though the couple couldn’t make it to Taihape, that gumboots would feature in the royal itinerary,” says Jebson.

Further information on QEII National Trust and the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy

QEII works in partnership with landowners to protect native biodiversity on their properties, forever. The landowner retains ownership of the land they are protecting. We provide the legal protection.

QEII National Trust has been endorsed to deliver New Zealand’s contribution to the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy Initiative (QCC). The QCC is an initiative to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s long reign and leadership of the Commonwealth. The QCC aims to create a network of native forest throughout the Commonwealth, and QEII is the link to the QCC in New Zealand.

QEII has a proud three-year involvement with the QCC programme through establishing a special class of covenant to protect significant areas of indigenous forest.  We’ve worked with private landowners to establish a series of protected native forests under the QCC banner.

Over the last three years QEII has approved 44 Queens Commonwealth Canopy covenants all across Aotearoa protecting 2,831ha in total of different types of native forest on private land.  The average size of these protected forests is 64ha and the largest single area that has been protected under this programme is 613ha.  All these forests met national priorities for biodiversity protection on private land, and many will be habitat for endangered species such as kiwi.  They make a hugely important contribution to the protection of New Zealand’s unique biodiversity.

Images of the trophy and native forest available here.