Top 10 Holiday Park on a renovation cycle
It’s been in operation in Taupō since 1957 but many would have driven past the Top 10 Holiday Park on Rangatira Street without realising it covers just over two hectares.
Owner Darren Blank said he and his brother Matt and their wives Suzi and Kris, who bought the park three years ago, have embarked on a series of renovations since they arrived.
“Owning a holiday park you never stop spending money.”
The park which has won NZ Holiday Park Association awards for the top renovation under $100,000 for two years running will this year, with the addition of a pool, tip into the category of improvements over $100,000.
“We have been pretty lucky,” said Blank, “a lot of places are struggling... but we have 80 per cent domestic market and a lot of people are travelling within New Zealand.”
The park, which swells to accommodate about 400 guests over the Christmas holiday period, even had 30 internationals stranded onsite during the Covid-19 lockdown last year.
“We were the only holiday park in the central North Island that stayed open, we spaced them out and once they had been here for a few weeks they formed their own bubble and started having afternoon drinks,” said Blank
Large events like the Summer Concert series and sporting events such as Ironman are major sources of revenue, he said, with all of the park’s units, powered and non-powered sites usually booked out a year in advance.
He’s hoping the latest addition, an 18m x 9 m pool with slide and waterfall will be ready for use by December.
The unit being demolished to make way for it has probably been there for the last 70 years, he said.
Not shy in dubbing the park a “hidden gem”, Blank said this was backed up by ratings - reviews in Trip Advisor Travellers’ Choice 2021 placed the park in the top 10 per cent worldwide.
“We’re not the biggest, flashest park in Taupō but we do sensational service.”
Worst Xmas ever?
There's a a lot of planning that goes into Christmas day and sometimes things just don't go to plan. But it can be a good thing - a family mishap or hilarious memory that you can laugh about in Christmases to come.
Whether you burnt the dinner or were stranded at an airport...
Share your Christmas mishaps below!
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
-
61.7% Summer
-
36.7% Winter
-
1.6% Other - I'll share below
Loading…
