Karamū students win climate challenge with bike project

Three Year 11 students from Karamū High School have won the 2026 Hawke's Bay Schools Climate Change Challenge, earning NZD $1,000 for a cycling project designed to reduce car use at the school.

Alethea Currie, Keerthana Rajesh and Lottie Melser, members of the school's environmental group Tīma Taiao, took first place with Project Paihikara. Their entry focused on shifting staff and students from cars to bikes by identifying practical barriers to cycling and working to remove them.

The competition asked students to develop projects linked to four themes: sustainable transport, biodiversity, water and climate-change awareness. Organisers said the goal was to turn broad environmental issues into projects with a lasting impact within individual schools.

Te Mata School and Sacred Heart College were joint runners-up and each received NZD $500. Other schools in the challenge included Henry Hill School, Central Hawke's Bay College and Hastings Intermediate, with entries ranging from biodiversity projects and rainwater capture to second-hand clothing initiatives and bird habitats.

How It Won

The Karamū team began with a schoolwide survey asking students whether they cycled, whether they could cycle and what stopped them from doing so. The group received 200 responses, then carried out bike counts on fine and rainy days and reviewed use of the existing bike racks.

They also assessed access to helmets, locks, spare bikes, a pump and a repair station. In the process, they found 15 school bikes that had been donated years earlier and stored in a container.

From there, the project moved into promotion and repairs. The students made posters, started an Instagram page, ran daily bike raffles, sourced vouchers and accessories, held a sustainability Kahoot session, invited local cyclist Harry van der Zanden to help fix bikes, spoke at junior and senior assemblies and volunteered as marshals at the Illuminati Night Ride.

Helen Howard, Enviroschools Facilitator at Hawke's Bay Regional Council, said judges were impressed by the way the students tackled a local problem with direct action.

"Environmental challenges can feel massive, even overwhelming," Howard said.

"What impressed us was how the students made them local and manageable. They found something in their own school they could change, then got on with it.

"We were there to support them and offer advice, but the ideas were all theirs and they did the mahi. They've been amazing."

Howard said the Karamū entry stood out because it examined behaviour rather than simply urging change.

"It was a really thoughtful project," she said.

"They didn't just say, 'People should bike more.' They asked why people weren't biking, listened to the answers, and then started working through the barriers one by one.

"That's what impressed us across all the entries. These were big environmental issues, but the students approached them with imagination, energy and a very practical sense of what could actually be done."

Wider Field

Te Mata School entered five biodiversity projects, including a bug hotel, rainwater capture and a red-painted birdhouse intended to attract tūī. Sacred Heart College tackled the environmental impact of fast fashion through a second-hand clothing swap.

Karamū High School also had another senior project in the competition, Project Kaitiaki Kākahu Repair Café, which focused on repair and reuse. Henry Hill School's Garden Pickles Unite created a sensory garden of food plants, flowers and textures for neurodiverse children.

Central Hawke's Bay College's Technicolour project focused on replanting neglected grass strips with native species. Hastings Intermediate's Bird Corridor aimed to create a greener route for birds through planting and the installation of 100 birdhouses.

Next Steps

The winning team plans to keep developing Project Paihikara. Priorities include a permanent bike repair station, a bike shelter, spare helmets, a loan-bike scheme, a biking club, bike scholarships and a possible "cycling school bus".

The first target is a permanent repair station, estimated to cost about NZD $2,500, making the prize money a starting contribution rather than full funding.

Howard said the standard of entries reflected a broader pattern in schools across the region. Hawke's Bay has 75 participating Enviroschools - 44 schools and 31 early childhood centres - involving about 10,400 children and students.

"There are some incredibly thoughtful, far-sighted kids in our region. They're idealistic, which is exactly what you want, but they're practical too. They want to make things better - and they're prepared to do the mahi," Howard said.