Horse-trekking business plans site improvements

Press, 2 November 1984, Page 4

Horse-trekking business plans site improvements

A Christchurch couple with a horse-trekking business are gearing up for the tourist market Mr Geoff Densem and Mrs Paula Densem have taken horse treks through Bottle Lake plantation, near Waimairi Beach, since the beginning of this year. The Densems now plan to exSind their business, Pegasus orse Trekking Centre, on to a larger area of land in Mairehau Road, using a disused battery hen-house for stabling. There is one snag — the new site is. zoned residen-

tial, and the Densems’ application to the Waimairi District Council to use the land has drawn an objection. The. i objection will be heard .later this month. Mr Densem said the land the business worked from now, at the corner of .Sylvia and Badger Streets at Waimairi Beach, had no buildings. It did not “look right” for tourists, he said. The new premises would present a better frontage to the ( prospective, horselnstead of horses

standing in an empty grass paddock there would be offstreet parking, signposting, post-and-rail stained fences, and other refinements. Most of the Densems’ business comes . at weekends at present. Once at the new site, they plan to employ a university student over the summer and to be open five days a week. The new site avoids the problem of having to take trekkers along roads to get to Bottle Lake plantation' because the land, which they would lease from Burwood Hospital, adjoins the

S' tation. They plan eveny to run twilight treks, with a barbeque afterwards, and even moonlight treks on balmy summer evenings. The Densems now take about 25 people horse-trekk-ing a week and they believe that could easily be doubled or even trebled. “There is a lack of this type of horse-riding available in Christchurch at the moment,” said Mr Densem. Most other riding establishments catered for specialist skills, such as dressage rather than taking untrained people on treks.