Rotorua Top 10: Relaxing in Rotorua
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But, after a hard day partaking in adventure activities and visiting the thermal wonders, a long soak in a mineral hot pool is often at the top of the list for many visitors to the region.
The Rotorua Top 10 Holiday Park can now offer its guests the opportunity to relax in one of two mineral hot pools as part of a recent major development within the park.
Bordering on the Kuirau Park Geothermal Reserve, the owners felt there may be mineral water to be found within the boundary of the holiday park and attempted to drill for water in the early 1990s with little success. However, in 2011 a further attempt to drill for water in a different area of the holiday park, away from the boundary with the geothermal reserve, proved more successful. This second attempt found a geothermal bore that enables a continuous supply of mineral water to the holiday park.
Jared Adams, CEO of the Rotorua Top 10 Holiday Park likens the finding of the geothermal bore to striking oil. "Discovering the bore was a very exciting time for us, and was something the owners of the park had wanted since they took over in 1990," he says. "Being able to provide mineral hot pools onsite is a great draw card for tourists and is a positive move for the holiday park."
As a result of the discovery, an area perfect for relaxation has been developed. Two mineral hot pools, one heated to 40°C and one to 38°C and each able to hold up to 15 people, have been built along with a new deck area. More than 300 native plants border the pools and LED lighting has been installed around the deck to enable the pools to be used in the evenings and during the winter months.
Further facilities in the park have also been upgraded. A brand new shower block and toilet block was built by Uniplan and installed at the holiday park in late 2010. The block has larger shower and toilet cubicles than the norm and provides gas hot water heating on demand. It can cater for up to 300 people with eight showers and eight toilets on each side.
"The facilities block was built by Uniplan up in Auckland and was transported down to Rotorua on the back of a truck in the early hours of the morning," says Adams. "We had all hands on deck from 5am on the day the toilet and shower block arrived."
Renovations to the guest lounge and kitchen have also been completed recently but the holiday park doesn't plan to stop there. Further upgrades are planned to begin in the next 18 months, including a new reception area and another six rooms which, Adams says, will be designed to a five star standard.
However, it's not just the grounds of the holiday park that are taking a new direction. The management and overall operation of the park has undergone a series of major business changes over the last year.
Previously run as a small family business with the owners controlling all areas of the holiday park, it now operates with a board of directors and has additional help from two business advisers.
The main impetus for the change in direction came when the park entered the Rotorua Business Awards in 2011. Adams says the awards process highlighted some of the weaknesses the park had from being run as a small family business.
"The business awards pointed out some of the things we were lacking, such as governance," says Adams. "With these processes in place it will make the business more attractive should the owners decide to sell and it also provides some future proofing for the business," he says.
The move to a more business orientated way of running the holiday park was also driven by Adams. He is arguably one of the youngest holiday park CEOs in New Zealand, taking over the running of the park from his parents in April this year at just 26 years of age. It has been quite a natural progression, he says, from growing up in and around the holiday park, to working in hospitality at other accommodation providers and coming back to work at the holiday park.
Taking over the holiday park has also been helped by the fact the park is a franchisee of the Top 10 group. Rotorua Top 10 Holiday Park has been part of the Top 10 group since 2000 and it is a great franchise to be with, says Adams.
"We get a lot of support and help from other members and I find I'm often talking to the owners of the Taupo Top 10 and Napier Top 10 Holiday Parks to ask for advice," he says. "The ability to refer campervans to other parks in the knowledge that they are all rated four star and above also provides peace of mind."
Rotorua Top 10 Holiday Park is rated five star by Qualmark and was the first holiday park in Rotorua to achieve the Qualmark Enviro Silver rating for its efforts in reducing its impact on the environment in 2009. The park has since achieved Enviro Gold.
With 18 cabins and a number of sites suitable for campervans, RVs, caravans and tents, the Rotorua Top 10 Holiday Park primarily caters to the free and independent traveller (FIT) market. A recent upgrade to the parks' playground, along with the new hot pools, sees the park aiming to become more family-orientated, says Adams.
Additional facilities and services within the park include a swimming pool, wireless internet, tour booking and pick up service, laundry, BBQs, drink vending machine and DVD hire. And with the holiday park situated just 800m from Rotorua city centre it is, for many visitors, a great place to use as a base for exploring everything Rotorua has to offer.
By Rebecca Wood, Industry Reporter
