Renovation renovated

Well well well....2 years after first writting about it here we have finally completed the conversion of our old backpackers building to a brand new luxury Motel complex complete with licensed bar, Cafe and conference venue.

This has been one hell of a major undertaking but finally its done, happy days!!

As always with good intentions I wanted to regularly update this blog site but you just seem to get busy with life and the next thing you know another year has passed you by!.
Well whats new?, we had plans of converting the backpackers part of our business to more Motel units but this plan is now on hold, we have instead decided to make the place a bit more up-market instead.
This way we can still offer rooms at a lower rate but have a quality product for people to enjoy so out go the old style dorm rooms etc and in with very nice double and twin bed rooms, cant wait for it all to be done, My mission at the moment is painting through the lounge which is almost done, then the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms. Our plan is to have a trendy cafe style place where people feel comfortable and like to hangout. If you have any ideas we would love to hear from you.
Well back to the biking, as I mention in my last blog Trish and I were training for the round taupo 160k bike ride!, indeed yes we made it, in pretty good time but not record breaking. It was a great day and the atmosphere is incredible. If you are considering doing this make the commitment and get into it, you wont regret it. It is however a big ride and a big commitment, our thoughts were just after finishing "never again" but after a couple of months we decided it wasnt that bad afterall and here we are 2011 and training for it again!. on top of this we have both entered the K1 around the coromandel, it is pretty much a local event and another must do, who knows maybe next year the K2!!.
Have also managed to get a couple of days skiing in, the biggest snow the north island has seen for around 20 years!, yeehaa. great times not only for all the riders but for all those businesses down there.
Lastly there are a couple of cool events coming up here in Whanga, the run walk festival is in a couple of weeks, 10th Sept, Midge Marsden is apparently coming to play in our little town on the 1st October and who could forget the rugby world couple starting up in a couple of weeks, although not a local event here I am sure there will be plenty of people getting involved watching the games.
See ya out there!

Isnt it amazing how timne flies by, here we are another year gone by since the last blog!!!. I am struggling to think of what has happened over the past year to report on?, the big news really has been that things have slowed done a bit since last year, I guess due to the worldwide recession....well it cant last forever and I have a good feeling about the next 12 months. Summer feels like it is here to stay and we have definately been alot busier over the past few weeks, it is also great to see our overseas guests arriving!.
On a personal note Trish and I have been busy spending alot of our spare time training for the upcoming round taupo cycle ride, 160ks!!...we had entered a few events over the past few months with the last one being 100 k, we made it through that OK !, this coming weekend I have entered the K1 which is a 86 k ride around the Coromandel, hills, hills, and more hills, apparently the toughest ride in the southern hemisphere!!...more on that later

Yeah.......have managed to finish the painting, all done, over, finito, its only taken a year but finally.....you cant guess at how relieved I am and the place looks really good. The final part had to be done using a giant boom lift that could be driven around the place and I than able to get to all the places that couldnt be taken care of with a ladder, or as I done some of the lodge roof, hanging from a rope.
So now we are all set for summer, right now all we need is some sun, overcast and wet at the moment but not for much longer and we will be back into it.

July School Holiday

Here we are in the middle of winter and things haven't slowed down much, we have been kept busy with a really good deal in the Motel which is 2 nights for $150.00, basically half price which is great if you want to get away for a couple of days without breaking the budget.
Speaking of getting away we managed some family time down at Turoa ski field for a week which was great fun, a few hadn't skied before but by the end of the week were blazing down the hill no problem so a great time was had by everyone....definately have to do it again.
Not all the time was spent on the mountain though, we had a couple of days where the weather wasnt so kind so we went or a bit of a wander around some of the tracks they have near Ohakune, its amazing how you can go there so often but not really see the place for what it is, an amazing amount of interesting history surrounds the area and is well worth a look. Of particular interest was the old route between Auckland and Wellington that cut through the central plateau, the old coach rd near Ohakune is a track well worth a visit part of which comes out at the new viaduct which is right beside the old one that you can still walk across, also never dissapointing is visiting the army museum in Waiouru. Plus to top the history lesson off the memorial to those who lost their lives in the Tangiwai rail disaster.

How time flies, April since the Beach Hop and half the year is gone already. Its still been pretty much all go here, have managed to get the units looking good with the refurbishment complete, its great....

A very cool event was the annual Police surfing competition, held in Raglan this year, the mecca for surfing and true to west coast style it was big!..but great fun and it is not often you have Manu Bay to surf with only three others out. Everyone had a ball with enough size on the second day to have a jet ski out helping keep everyone safe and make life a bit easier in the paddling stakes.

here is just a small portion of the cars coming past for the cruise over to Onemana, there were hundreds of them. A few of the school kids got time off to come and watch the parade which was great for them with most of the noise being from the kids rather than the cars.
The weather was perfect for the whole week which made it another very sucessful event, next year is the 10th so should be a big one, if you want to see more checkout www.beachhop.co.nz