Our Parks Awards celebrate the people, parks, and spaces enhancing community wellbeing across the motu.
Our Parks Awards Gala Dinner is held each May, part of the Green Pavlova Conference.
See the 2025 Parks Awards winners
Award categories
Organisation awards
All Organisation winners at the Parks Awards will automatically progress to the most relevant category at the Recreation Awards, ensuring outstanding park initiatives are recognised on a national stage.
Community Park of the Year
Formerly known as Healthy Park of the Year, this award recognises the success of a park that actively supports community wellbeing. We are looking for a park that promotes physical, mental, and social health, provides accessible and welcoming spaces, and fosters strong connections with mana whenua.
Nominations open in January
Sports Park of the Year
Formerly known as the Active Park / Sportsground of the Year, this award recognises the success of a sports park or adventure space that supports active lifestyles. We are looking for a park that offers high-quality sport and recreation experiences, demonstrates strong community engagement, upholds meaningful connections with mana whenua, and shows clear evidence of positive community impact.
Nominations open in January
Playspace of the Year (within $500,000)
This award recognises the success of a playspace developed for recreation and play within a $500,000 budget. We are looking for a playspace that demonstrates intentional design, meaningful mana whenua involvement, strong accessibility and inclusion, and innovative thinking that enhances the play experience for tamariki, rangatahi, and whānau.
Nominations open in January
Playspace of the Year (over $500,000)
This award recognises the success of a playspace designed for recreation and play with a budget exceeding $500,000. We are looking for a playspace that demonstrates intentional development, innovative design, meaningful mana whenua involvement, and a strong commitment to accessibility and inclusion.
Nominations open in January
Leader Award
The winner of the Parks Leader of the Year will automatically progress to the Recreation Leader of the Year Award at the Recreation Awards, ensuring outstanding established leaders are recognised on a national stage.
Parks Leader of the Year
Formerly known as Parks Person of the Year, this award recognises an individual who demonstrates exceptional leadership in the management, sustainability, and development of public parks. We are looking for a person whose commitment, innovation, and professionalism significantly enhance the quality and future of parks in their community.
Nominations open in January
Nomination eligibility
Any individual or organisation working in parks, play, and open spaces can be nominated for a Parks Award.
- Leader Award – the person must be nominated by another party.
- Organisation Award – an organisation can nominate themselves or be nominated by another party.
How to nominate
- Complete the nomination form, providing clear data or evidence showing how the applicant meets each judging criterion.
- Include three high-quality images to support your nomination.
- If the nomination is for a Leader Award, please provide a headshot of the nominee.
Nomination essentials
- All nominations must be submitted electronically. We do not accept hard copy nominations.
- You must respond to every judging criterion for your category.
- Nominations that don’t supply relevant evidence for each criterion will likely receive lower scores. Please take the time to familarise yourself with the criteria:
- Photos and videos supplied as part of your nomination may be used during the Awards presentation dinner and in Recreation Aotearoa marketing, including our website, social media channels, and media.
- Please provide clear, well-lit images, taken in a mix of landscape (horizontal) and portrait (vertical) orientation. Avoid blurry photos, screenshots, or images with heavy filters.
- Winners are not notified before the Awards ceremony. We want to keep it a surprise. We encourage all nominees to attend the dinner.
- The Recreation Aotearoa judging panel reserves the right to move a nomination to a different category if they believe it is more appropriate.