The Department of Conservation (DOC) received a significant funding boost in 2018 of $181.6 million over four years. This is one of the biggest funding increases that DOC has ever received, and it will benefit New Zealand's native plants, wildlife and natural landscapes. $76 million of this funding is for biodiversity initiatives across land, freshwater and marine ecosystems, which means that DOC's freshwater restoration programme is expanding. As part of building a new restoration programme there is value in looking back at some exiting programmes. Living Water is a 10-year partnership between the Department of Conservation (DOC) and Fonterra which aims to find game-changing and scalable solutions that will enable farming, freshwater and healthy ecosystems to thrive side-by-side. To achieve this, tools or solutions are being trialled in five regions across New Zealand. We have taken a multi-disciplinary approach to our projects, incorporating science with behaviour change theory, economics and indigenous knowledge systems to ensure our outputs are evidence based, fit for purpose and result in enduring benefits for freshwater environments and rural communities. Living Water has now been operating for seven years and has a lot to share, how well have we achieved what we set out to achieve and what have been the difficulties and learnings along the way.