Hospice Southland

11/01/2026

Our incredible Queenstown Hospice Shop volunteer Ella Wilson has been with our team for over 10 years, and now she’s also been recognised on the national stage, receiving the King’s Service Medal (K.S.M.) in the New Year’s Honours list for her outstanding service to community and theatre.

Ella has dedicated decades to volunteering with Plunket, the Queenstown Lakes Baby Box Charitable Trust, Showbiz Queenstown, and more. Of all her achievements, she says she’s most proud of the friends she’s made through helping others and we couldn’t agree more!

Read her full story here:

https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/most-proud-plunket-service?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Thank you, Ella, for your passion, heart, and years of service, you are an inspiration!

Queenstown woman Ella Wilson says she wanted to cry when she was found out she had been recognised in the New Year Honours list, for her work in...

04/01/2026

Become part of our Hospice Southland Volunteer family in 2026!

We have many volunteer roles available to suit your time and skills, from retail and events to patient support and more!

Join the team and help and make a real difference in our Southland and Wakatipu Basin Communities. Every role helps support patients and families when they need it most.

Get in touch today to find out how you can help by emailing toni.eade@hospicesouthland.org.nz or see the link to our application form below!

https://hsct.infoodle.com/f/VolunteerApplicationForm

24/12/2025

Meri Kirihimete from all of us at Hospice Southland

As we come to the close of another year, we want to take a moment to thank our incredible communities, our patients and families, volunteers, donors, supporters, partners, and staff for the compassion, generosity, and kindness you show to our Hospice Southland Cause.

We wish you all a safe, peaceful, and heartfelt festive season, filled with moments of connection, kindness, and care.

We also hope you enjoy the beautiful Christmas artwork designed especially for Hospice Southland by Mala Horrax during her SIT studies, thank you for sharing your amazing talent with us Mala!

23/12/2025

🎄 Christmas & New Year Shop Hours 🎄

As we head into the festive season, our Hospice Southland shops will have some changes to their opening hours. Thank you for your ongoing support — every purchase this year has helped us to provide care across our community ❤️

North Road | Winton | Yarrow Street | South City
🛍️ Closing: End of trading Tuesday 23 December 2025
🛍️ Reopening: Monday 5 January 2026

Gore
🛍️ Closing: End of trading Saturday 20 December 2025
🛍️ Reopening: Monday 5 January 2026

Queenstown
🎄 Christmas Day – Closed
🎁 Boxing Day – Closed
🎆 New Year’s Day – Closed
🎆 Day After New Year’s Day – Closed

Te Anau
🎄 Christmas Day – Closed
🎁 Boxing Day – Closed
🛍️ Saturday 27 Dec – Extended hours 10am–4pm
🛍️ Sunday 28 Dec – Extended hours 10am–4pm
🛍️ Monday 29 – Wednesday 31 Dec – Normal hours 9am–5pm
🎆 New Year’s Day – Closed
🛍️ Friday 2 Jan – Normal hours 9am–5pm
🛍️ Saturday 3 Jan – Extended hours 10am–4pm (or close at 3pm if required)
🛍️ Sunday 4 Jan – Extended hours 10am–4pm

We wish you all a safe and happy festive season and look forward to welcoming you back in the New Year. Thank you for supporting Hospice Southland 💙

💙 A kind request about donations 💙
We are so grateful for the generous donations we receive throughout the year — your support truly makes a difference. During the period when our shops are closed, we kindly ask that donations are not left outside our stores. Unfortunately, items left after hours are often damaged by weather or tampering and must be disposed of, which comes at a cost to Hospice Southland. Holding onto your donations until our shops reopen helps ensure they can be used to their full potential to support care in our community.

Thank you for your understanding and continued generosity 💙

22/12/2025

A huge thanks to Brian and the Invercargill Workingmens Club Inc team that dropped into Hospice Southland this morning and generously donated over $4,500, raised through this year’s Spud Dig!

Thank you to everyone involved for the hard work, community spirit, and good humour that make this event such a success year after year.

We’re already looking forward to doing it all again next year and maybe even getting stuck in with a bit of the digging and auction action ourselves!

21/12/2025

Thanks to our community’s incredible generosity, 82 calves helped raise an astounding $55,348 in support of Hospice Southland.

A huge congratulations to Katrina Thomas whose calf weighing in at 150kg, won the House of Travel $1,000 voucher for the heaviest calf.

We also extend our thanks to Sgt Dan Stockfoods Ltd for donating calf meal, and congratulations to the two random draw winners:

Craig & Phillipa Adams
Kenneth & Lorraine White

And a BIG shoutout to Jenny and Kate from Farm Source Otago/Southland, Nicol from Carrfields, all of the transporting companies, and Lorneville Stock Yards for your massive team effort in organising this fundraiser.

The time, coordination, and commitment behind the scenes is immense, and we are so grateful for the way you rallied together in support of Hospice Southland

18/12/2025

This week we farewelled the wonderful Anne Potter, who has retired after an incredible time with Hospice Southland, and what a legacy she leaves behind.

As our Day Programme Co-ordinator, Anne brought creativity, joy and connection to every week. From arts and crafts, guest speakers and performers, to vintage car rides and even a road trip to the Distinction Invercargill Hotel for a tour and lunch, Anne had a gift for turning ideas into meaningful moments and unforgettable experiences for our attendees.

Anne also played a huge role behind the scenes as our Living Legacy Biography Team Co-ordinator and Patient & Family Support Team Administrator, supporting patients, families and volunteers with warmth, organisation and care.

And of course… we can’t forget Anne’s claim to fame - 2025 Staff Cheeseroll Champion!
A fiercely competitive title, and one she proudly takes into retirement!

Anne, thank you for the heart, energy, laughter and dedication you’ve given to Hospice Southland. You will be so missed, but we wish you every happiness in this next chapter.

18/12/2025

Registrations for the Par for Purpose Hospice Southland Charity Golf Day are going well! With only a limited number of team spots remaining, we encourage you to register your team sooner rather than later to avoid missing out.

The Par for Purpose team have an awesome day planned with some great prizes to give away throughout the day all in support of Hospice Southland.

Come tee off with us on Friday 13th Feb 2026! To Register a team click on the Humanitix Link below:

https://events.humanitix.com/par-for-purpose-hospice-charity-golf-day?

Welcome to Par for Purpose. This is a new event created by Scott Whitaker to raise money for Hospice Southland.

17/12/2025

Career Opportunity – Regional Programme Lead

An exciting opportunity for someone passionate about improving Hospice care across the South Island

The Te Waipounamu Hospice Collaborative is seeking a Regional Programme Lead to support hospice services (including Southland, Otago, and across Te Waipounamu) in driving regional collaboration, best practice, and improved outcomes for patients and whānau.
This contract role offers a flexible South Island location, part-time hours, and a real chance to make a meaningful impact on how hospice care is delivered across our communities.
For more details click on the Seek link below:

https://www.seek.co.nz/job/89182771?ref=hirer-jobs-list

16/12/2025

A huge thank you and heartfelt shout out to the team at BNI Invercargill, NZ for todays amazing donation of goodies and a generous Diacks Nurseries voucher- your kindness will make a real difference for our patients and families this festive season!

We wish your whole team a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and we can’t wait to collaborate on some exciting projects and events in the year ahead!

13/12/2025

A huge thank you to the Queenstown Masonic Lodge for their generous donation of children’s books. 📚

Many young families experience the loss of a loved one, and these books will help us talk with children through stories – giving them a safe space to explore and express their feelings. This is also so important in supporting mums and dads as they face losing a loved one from a life-limiting illness.

A special thanks to Gary Lonsdale and Edis Embil for taking the time to source and present these books to the Queenstown Community Hospice Team – your kindness will make a real difference to the families we support. 💛

10/12/2025

Over the past few weeks, we’ve had the absolute pleasure of coming together across our communities to celebrate our incredible Hospice Southland volunteers. Five gatherings filled with shared stories, laughter, great kai, and the warm connections that make our volunteer family so special.

One of our favourite moments each year is recognising our amazing long-service volunteers. This year, we proudly acknowledged those who have gifted 5, 10, and 15 years of service to our organisation.

Every act of service, every moment of kindness, every gesture of compassion all of it builds the foundation on which Hospice Southland stands.

Our volunteers are the Heartbeat of Hospice!