Mission-On 2 Town No. 1: Collingwood!

Collingwood was the centre of New Zealand's first gold rush, before the gold rush of Central Otago. It began in April 1857 and peaked in 1858 with 4000 diggers. It was a rough canvas town with no official goldfields legislation, and the roads to the diggings were often channels of mud. The end of the rush came in the winter of 1859, with severe flooding and a fire in which every store and hotel in the town was destroyed.

The environmentally-friendly locale is also known as New Zealand's first 'plastic shopping bag-free' town, after the residents chose to stop using plastic shopping bags in 2005.

Towns across New Zealand each featured over a whole week of Studio 2! We met the locals, found out about the history of the area, and got involved in some local activities! When 'Mission On - 2Town' rolled through each town, 8 kids got the chance to represent their town in some sporting challenges, with their efforts combining to create an overall score on the '2Town' leaderboard!