If teenagers Bethany Mathers and Tessa Patrick are anything to go by, the Green Party is in good heart.
The pair, aged 15 and 13 respectively, spoke to about 120 delegates at the Green Party conference in Dunedin, on Sunday, about Teen Greens, a new section of the party they formed about four months ago.
"A lot of you have spent your life in BG - `Before Google' that is," Miss Mathers, from Darfield, Canterbury, said addressing the conference.
"We want to get the message out there that even if you are not old enough to vote you can still be politically active," Miss Patrick, of Nelson, said.
The pair have doubled the size of their membership, to four, and said they were looking to sign up more after the conference.
More than 200 people, mainly middle-aged or older, registered for the conference held at Balmacewen Intermediate School, in Dunedin, from Friday until yesterday, and the feeling seemed to be overwhelmingly that the Greens have a rosy future.
Co-leader Russel Norman said, to media after the announcement of Metiria Turei as co-leader, that after the death of Rod Donald in 2005 many expected the Greens to collapse, but they did not.
When Jeanette Fitzsimons announced in February she would be stepping down as co-leader, people again expected the party to collapse, but they would not, he said.
Ms Turei said this week the party was in "turmoil" about losing Ms Fitzsimons but realised the appointment of a new co-leader was a chance to look to the future.
Joanna Plows, a delegate from Nelson and member since the 1990s, said membership in Nelson was bigger than she had ever seen it.
At their recent regional annual meeting new members just "kept flowing through the door", she said.
Grace Taylor, of Dunsandel, said she felt that many more people were starting to see the Green way of thinking as a viable alternative and the party's ideas were appealing to more people than ever.
The Young Greens, who made a presentation at the conference, seem to be the driving force behind the party and its hopes for the 2011 election and beyond.
Alethea Hill, of Coromandel, said having watched the young Greens' presentation she would be going back to her electorate to try to get more young people involved with the party.
