Competitors wanted for new top town programme

Taupo’s pride and athletic reputation is on the line as the search for team members to compete in the revived Top Town programme begins

The Top Town programme which was hugely popular in the 70’s is being modernised and towns throughout the country will compete for the Top Town Cup and the honour of being New Zealand’s Top Town.

Taupo is one of only 15 towns selected to take part. The teams were selected from more than 35 applicants and were determined by the quality of their applications and the geographical spread across the country.

Mayor Rick Cooper says ‘Top Town is a great kiwi tradition and is a great chance to showcase Taupo’s many talents to the country. He says “I’m 100% behind the team and will definitely get down to Christchurch to cheer them on during the filming. Councillor Mike Downward is the Team Leader for our team, the “Taupo Lakers” so he will be looking after them.”

Councillor Downard said, “when we first heard about the competition we had a think about who we could approach to be on the team – and within a matter of minutes we had a list of around 30 top athletes which actually made the decision really difficult. In the end we decided that the fairest way to get a team is to open it up to everyone - so we will be holding trials at the Events Centre in the next couple of weeks.

He says this is such a great opportunity and it is going to be full on, but should be a lot of fun. “We are definitely in it to win it – but at the same time we will need to make sure we look after each other and have a few laughs along the way.”

Details on the trials will be finalised in the next week and will be widely publicised throughout Taupo.