Chch builder in tourist venture

Press, 3 December 1985, Page 9

Chch builder in tourist venture

A Christchurch builder will launch a million dollar tourist venture on Australia’s Gold Coast this month.

Mr Trevor Lindstrom has bought two “Griffon” hovercraft from Britain and will launch them at Sea World, a sea adventure park near Surfers Paradise. The hovercraft, which cost $1 million each, are considered the Rolls-Royce •of hovercraft. They will carry up to 40 tourists each on a scenic sea tour of Sea World, skimming over water too shallow for more conventional craft. The venture is the first of its kind in Australia and Mr Lindstrom will be the first owner operator at Sea World.

Provided the venture succeeds, Mr Lindstrom will also use hovercraft to take tourists along the Brisbane River, between Surfers Paradise and Brisbane. Mr Lindstrom is in his mid-30s and has built fibreglass boats, including popu-

lar 28ft yachts, in. Christchurch for years. His brother, Mr David Lindstrom, said in Christchurch yesterday that Trevor Lindstrom knew the hovercraft makers in Christchurch and saw the craft as potential in the tourism business. He had visited Australia several times in the last year arranging the venture. Mr Lindstrom said that his brother would have preferred to buy the hovercraft locally. The Christchurch manufacturers, however, were too busy with orders and could not produce the craft in time, and so the “Griffons” were imported from Britain. The venture has been financed privately, with Mr Lindstrom the sole managing director of the company. With about a million people visiting Sea World each year, the hovercraft should bring in millions of dollars, according to Mr Lindstrom.