When the Government first introduced the National Planning Standards through the Resource Legislation Amendment Act 2017, Nelson City Council had just started reviewing its operative resource management plans with the aim to develop the Whakamahere Whakatū Nelson Plan - one of the first new combined plans that would need to comply with the National Planning Standards. This paper tells the story of a three year journey of central and local government sailing together across Cooks Strait to deliver and implement standards for combined plans. Having safely landed on the shores of standardised plan land with a draft of the Nelson Plan in early 2020, the crew will outline where the ship sailed relatively smoothly (e.g. formatting and style). They will also describe where they encountered stormy sections and muddy waters (e.g. fitting local content into set sections), and explain how they refined their plotting skills. The report back of the pioneering crew can serve other councils with a first map for how to navigate through the standardisation waters and, perhaps, help to simplify their plan preparation processes. Having just started public consultation on the draft Nelson Plan, the paper will also give the audience a first taste of how the Planning Standards live up to their other goals. This includes helping to achieve a balance between central government direction, uniformity and local circumstances, and increasing user-friendliness and accessibility to resource management plans.

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