Summertime at Tekapo Springs just got a whole lot more fun

Outrageous summertime fun is on the menu for young and old with the launch of two new activities at Tekapo Springs in New Zealand’s Mackenzie District.

Opening on December 1, the Aqua Drop delivers on summer thrills, with its 150-metre downhill waterslide laying claim to be the longest outdoor slope of its kind in New Zealand.

The good old days of family fun at the Bach or in the backyard are recreated with this classic Kiwi summer activity of slipping, sliding and splashing all day long. amidst the stunning beauty of Tekapo.

Mums and Dads can relax in the hot pools or enjoy a flat white in Altitude 720 Café and Bar, which roasts its own beans amid claims it is the highest-altitude roasted coffee in New Zealand.

If the Aqua Drop isn’t wearing the littlies out enough, there’s always the aptly-named Jumpernaut which will be taking up residence in the winter ice rink arena.

The inflatable activity park is suitable for all ages, an exciting adventure for those who are happy to run, bounce and climb through this colourful, inflatable wonderland. Younger children will love the dedicated kids’ area.

Tekapo Springs is celebrating 12 years of consistent ground-breaking new products, innovation, investment and growth, and the two new activities are opening as it prepares for its busiest season to date.

Recent statistics show the Mackenzie district has the most number of guests staying in its hotels, motels, backpackers and holiday parks compared to any other tourism hotspot in New Zealand, relative to the size of its resident population.

Tekapo Springs owner and founder Karl Burtscher says the region is “pumping” and its multi-faceted year-round operation is growing accordingly.

The multi-award-winning, world-renowned facility features three hot pools, two cooler pools and an aqua play area, a day spa, cafe, steam and sauna rooms and an ice rink and snow tube park.

A range of night-time stargazing experiences have added a whole new dimension to the Tekapo Springs’ offerings. Earlier this year the star gazing options expanded with the addition of a new virtual reality and hot pools tour, beginning earlier in the evening depending on the season, and ensuring tours are never cancelled due to weather.

“Our goal from the start was to create a year-round compelling attraction, a recreational environment for the whole family that also appealed to domestic and international visitors,” says Karl.

“Now we’re one of the largest drawcards in Tekapo and the Mackenzie District and we’ve done that by never sitting on our laurels and continuing to evolve,” he says.

“We’ve grown from a one-product winter activity to one that operates 364 days a year, employs up to 50 people, welcomes around 160,000 people a year and is recognised as one of the major tourism operators in the region.

“I’m really proud of what we’ve done.”

For further information or high res images please contact:

Karl Burtscher
Managing Director Tekapo Springs
Mob. +64 275 324 272
P: +64 3 680 6550
E: karl@tekaposprings.co.nz
W: www.tekaposprings.co.nz

Tamaki Hikoi owned and operated by Ngati Whatua Orakei has relaunched its website www.tamakihikoi.co.nz.

The new site, built by Tomahawk with design assistance from MARX Design gives a fresh new look to its range of cultural tourism experiences in Tamaki Makaurau.

The site showcases a new brand, new imagery and a look at our Hikoi Guides – Tui-Kay, Dane, Paora and Alec.

Our guided walking tours share with visitors an understanding of what it takes for the people of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei to live and thrive through extreme change and adversity.

Educate customers on plastic

Speak to your customers about what your business is doing and why, all the way through their holiday ‘journey’. Here are some suggestions:

• Communicate to explain the impacts that plastic waste can have on New Zealand and how they can work with you to avoid that
• Suggest simple actions such as refusing plastic bags, straws and other single-use items, or not using the miniature toiletries in the bathroom
• Let them know where they can recycle in your region or around New Zealand
• Motivate customers by showing how their participation boosts overall plastic reduction. Connect the story to the location – for example, by explaining the positive effect plastic waste reduction will have on local marine life, the attractiveness of the beach or the well-being of local people
• Encourage customers to get involved with local initiatives such as beach clean-ups.

Double awards celebrations for tourism leaders Go Orange

Queenstown and Fiordland tourism operator Go Orange Go Orange is celebrating not once, but twice, after winning two national awards in the space of 24 hours.

At a ceremony on the Gold Coast last night (Thursday November 14) it won the Best Activity New Zealand award in the 2019 Adventure Tourism Awards across Australia and New Zealand.

In its second year, the awards and associated Youth Tourism Conference are recognised as the industry’s biggest event of the year. They formally recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of tourism experiences, people and places in both countries.

Just a day earlier in Auckland, Go Orange continued its stellar rise on the New Zealand business radar following its ranking of 30 on the 2019 Deloitte Fast 50. The Fast 50 recognises and ranks the country’s fastest growing businesses and Go Orange claimed 30th place on the register with 236% growth.

It’s the second year in a row it has been recognised on the Fast 50, ranking 37th last year with 209% growth.

Earlier this year, also for the second year, Go Orange was named the Fastest Growing Services Business in Dunedin and the lower South Island at the Deloitte Fast 50 regional celebrations.

Go Orange General Manager Luke Taylor says winning the Best Activity award and making it onto the Fast 50 two years in a row are “outstanding results”.

“The Adventure Tourism Award recognises our drive to ‘Go Beyond’ with all our visitor experiences, inspiring them to go deeper, further and beyond the average tourist.

“Our improved Fast 50 ranking is another huge thrill, putting us at 30th among some of the best and brightest businesses in New Zealand, all striving for excellence.  It recognises the hard work and dedication of our team across our businesses in Queenstown, Te Anau and Milford Sound.”

While this week’s achievements are ones to acknowledge, Go Orange has already claimed its space as ‘one to watch’ in the tourism industry.

Earlier this year Go Orange was named AWS Legal Fiordland Tourism Operator of the Year, Luke Taylor won Emerging Tourism Leader of the Year at last year’s NZ Tourism Awards, and it was a national finalist in the Humankind Employee Experience Awards.

In the past year the company has launched a new Milford Haven cruise experience in Milford Sound, a Go Orange jetboat experience, a bespoke Unimog fleet for rafting and scenic travel experiences, new kayak trips and a new coach fleet.

Go Orange delivers outstanding New Zealand visitor experiences with cruising, whitewater rafting, jet boating, kayaking and coach connections in Queenstown, Te Anau, and Milford and Doubtful sounds.

For further media information or images please contact:

Fiona Woodham

Southern PR

E: fiona@southernpr.co.nz

M: 0274 313 270

Composting Food Packaging at Events

The CCC-led initiative Composting Food Packaging at Events was established to reduce the amount of waste that was being sent to the landfill from Christchurch events. A large amount of event waste is generated from food vendors packaging.

The success of the initiative has been due to:

• building strong relationships with packaging distributors, food vendors and waste facilities.
• tight controls (e.g. restricting trade to vendors with incorrect packaging), thorough training and monitoring.
• measuring and monitoring, with quantified results in order to build baseline data

 What you can do?

• Sign the NZ Tourism Sustainability Commitment
• Investigate accreditation programmes, such as Qualmark, Earthcheck, B-Corp, Enviro-Mark
• Conduct a waste audit to see where your waste is coming from and where it is going to

Thanks to Kat Ralph-Triebels, the Event and Sustainability Manager from Total Waste Solutions for presenting at TECNZ Conference.  If you wish to seek any further information please contact her at: M  027 232 3116    P 03 385 6972   

Tiaki – Care for New Zealand – assets

A range of  Tiaki-Care for New Zealand brand assets have been developed to provide more options for businesses to share the Tiaki Promise with their customers and staff.

Poster templates allows tourism businesses to create their own Tiaki- Care for New Zealand poster incorporating their logo and image.

Other assets include banners for use in newsletters and on websites and advertisements that have been updated with larger icons that how to uphold the Tiaki Promise, while travelling New Zealand.

The assets, along with updated Guidelines, are available for operators to download from Tourism New Zealand’s visual asset library.

Help Aotearoa reduce plastic pollution with RefillNZ

RefillNZ aims to reduce single use plastic pollution in Aotearoa by making tap water the drink of choice.

The non-profit organisation has come up with an easy solution tourism operators can use to encourage tourists to use reuseable bottles and refill. Helping the tourism industry to keep NZ Pure!

Businesses can place a sticker in their window, letting people know customers or passer bys can refill their water bottle for free instead of buying bottled water.

Over 500 businesses have already joined the #refillution, including increasing numbers of businesses in the tourist industry.  Get in touch with the RefillNZ team to get involved.

Adventure South NZ has been operating small group cycling and hiking tours across New Zealand since 1992. All of our tours include accommodation, transport, knowledgeable guides, most meals, and more. Adventure South NZ has over 40 itineraries covering cycle trails, road cycling, mountain biking and hiking as well as an experienced team who design private and custom tours for groups of all sizes.

We have a large fleet of late-model vehicles, 300 purpose built mountain bikes and 120 electric bikes.

Gen Less campaign

EECA have launched the Gen Less campaign, to encourage people and businesses to use less energy to help halt climate change. A number of businesses and networks have joined – you and your business can join too!  A good start is to:

• Transport related: combine car trips, holiday in NZ, commute without a car
• Home related: reduce food waste, buy things that last, dry your clothes outside, buy an EV
• Business: video conference more, choose low carbon suppliers

Join here.

Ziptrek Ecotours raises a record-breaking amount for local charity

Ziptrek Ecotours has raised a recording-breaking $11,352 for Central Lakes Family Services, during its annual ‘Ziptober’ fundraiser.

Thanks to the month-long fundraising campaign, the multi award winning Queenstown tourism company raised $3,000 more than any other year, since opening a decade ago.

Central Lakes Family Services Manager Tina Mongston said the money will be used to open a warm, welcoming and fully resourced childrens therapy room in Frankton.

“We’re really appreciative of what Ziptrek have done – they’ve gone all out and it’s fantastic for us,” Tina says.

“They’ve been really amazing and put in a lot of work, it’s great to see a local business get behind a local charity.

“The good thing about getting extra, unexpected windfalls of money coming through is that it allows us to expand things for families in the community who are needing extra help.”

Ziptrek’s Sales and Marketing Manager Nicky Busst says it has been an awesome month with over 450 local residents zipping through the trees high above Queenstown.

“Central Lakes Family Services plays such a vital role in this community so to know what a difference this money will make is incredibly heartwarming,” Nicky says.

Ziptrek smashed their goal to raise $10,000 this year, more than $2,000 over and above what was raised last year.

“It’s amazing to reflect on the 10 deserving charities we have supported over the years as we launch into our 10^th anniversary birthday month this November.

“We want to thank all the locals who get behind our great causes each and every year, as we couldn’t do it without their support.”

Throughout October, locals reconnected with their inner child to enjoy $50 trips on Ziptrek’s Kea 6-line, Moa 4-line and Kereru tours, with 50% of proceeds going to Central Lakes Family Services.

For further media information please contact: 

Mandy Cooper

Southern PR

E: Mandy@southernpr.co.nz

M: 027 337 7907