Rotoiti lodge opens

Press, 30 January 1984, Page 8

Rotoiti lodge opens

A firm step towards filling the “yawning gap” between the tourist resorts of Rotorua and Queenstown was taken at St Arnaud on Saturday when the new $1.5 million Alpine Lodge Rotoiti was opened. St Arnaud, about equidistant from Nelson and Blenheim, snuggles on the shore of Lake Rotoiti (one of the twin lakes in the Nelson Lakes National Park) and below the towering St Arnaud range. It is a little village serving the needs of those living in the region who have either holiday homes there or travel to the lake on vacation or on day picnic trips. It is, however, a strategic little spot with a vast potential as a tourist trap, and the consortium which built the lodge firmly recognised this on Saturday. In a public relations exercise of no small proportions travel journalists, photographers and travel agents from as far north as Auckland were flown in by Air

Albatross Metro Liner and Cessna 402 from Auckland and Wellington, and taken home at day’s end. In between they were shown over the new luxury lodge, taken on a 15-minute Metro Liner flight around the National Park, dined at a luncheon prepared by Austrian cordon bleu chef, Mr Gerhard Ruech, and given the opportunity to learn more about the consortium’s plans. A 1600 m airstrip on Lake Station, 10km from St Arnaud, was the key to a successful opening. The strip, used during the Second World War as a training strip, was reactivated by Air Albatross in collaboration with the station’s owner, Mr Lex McConachie. Air Albatross’s managing director, Mr Murray Turley, flew in a fully-laden Metro Liner for the first time, and said afterwards that everything went without a hitch. He still had plenty of run-

way left when the aircraft stopped. The strip could easily handle a Friendship or Hawker Siddeley aircraft, he said. On board the flight was Sir John Mowbray, chairman of the Development Finance Corporation, who performed the opening ceremony, and Lady Mowbray. Also aboard was Mr Jock Lee, of Link Consultants, who set up the publicity exercise. It was he who prophesied that St Arnaud, and the Alpine Lodge in particular, would play an important role in filling “the yawning gap” between the Rotorua and Queentown tourist areas. The lodge will cater for people wishing to take part in a variety of sports: skiing at both the Rainbow and Mt Robert fields, fishing and hunting in some of the best waters and bush in New Zealand, tramping and mountaineering. There are also plans for a nine-hole golf course nearby.