More than 100,000 people have visited Ōpuke Thermal Pool and Spa in its first year in business.
It has been a successful year despite several challenges, Ōpuke director James McKenzie said.
The $15 million facility was originally slated to open at the end of 2020, but Covid delays and supply chain issues meant it was delayed until November 2021.
McKenzie said it was “a challenging start to our first year of trading” due to the ongoing border closures and the Omicron wave arriving just after opening.
“Omicron had an immediate and unfavourable impact on visitation during February and March, and then a protracted impact on staffing, which we only started to get on top of towards the end of winter.
“Given these circumstances, we’re very pleased to end up just 10 per cent shy of our target visitation for the first year, and also achieve such high levels of service despite our initial staff issues.”
From April to October, patronage was “reassuringly consistent” with the pools booking out most weekends, he said, while they also introduced set capacities and session times to avoid overcrowding impacting the visitor experience.
In the first year, McKenzie said nearly 100,000 extra visitors have stopped off in Methven to visit the facility.

“Many have stayed for the night in local accommodation, headed out for dinner, shopped and tried out some of the many other great experiences on offer in our area.”
So far, Cantabrians have made up the bulk of the visitors, McKenzie said.
There has been a steady increase in people from further afield, including international visitors, he said as Christchurch airport continues to bring on more capacity.
Ōpuke received Government assistance of $7.5m loan funding from the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF), which McKenzie said covered about 40 per cent of the total construction and establishment costs.
“We are paying interest on this facility and repayments are due to commence in early 2025 but there is flexibility for us to start this earlier.”
Without the PGF money, McKenzie said it was unlikely that the project would have gone ahead and the site would still be a grassed paddock.
As a PGF project, it is achieving its mandate of stimulating the local economy, by attracting more visitors to the town – all-year round – and employment opportunities.
Ōpuke currently employs around 50 people McKenzie said, working across a range of casual, part-time and fulltime positions with the majority being from either Ashburton or Methven.
The facility aims to be carbon-neutral and has a solar field of almost 500 solar thermal collectors occupying approximately a quarter of the site that serves as the primary pool water heating system.
“Our solar thermal heating system is the first of its kind in New Zealand and now a proven success – keeping the pools toasty warm, even on the shortest day of the year, which has been really neat to see,” McKenzie said.

Well earned award
Ōpuke Thermal Pool and Spa received an early present on the eve of its first anniversary, collecting a gong at the 2022 New Zealand Architecture Awards.
They were winners in the commercial category where the judges said the “architectural form and material selection reflect the approach to this site at the foothills of the Southern Alps”.
“A huge effort by many went into creating Ōpuke so this recognition is a highlight of what has been a pretty successful first year,” McKenzie said.

Turning Methven into a tourism town all-year round

Methven has been a winter tourism destination since Mt Hutt opened in 1973.
The flow-on effect of Ōpuke means the tourism season has expanded with visitors coming all-year round, and local businesses are benefiting
One example is Ski Time with owner-operators Peter and Susanne Wood deciding to stay open over the Christmas and New Year period for the first time in more than 35 years.
“Methven is not just a winter destination anymore,” Susanne said.
“With the Ōpuke hot pools, fantastic restaurants, walks, mountain bike tracks and thriving village, people want to come here all-year round and that’s great for us all.”
The decision also came after a busy winter that had the town at capacity despite a worker shortage.
Like many other hospitality and accommodation providers in Methven, Ski Time had to reduce their operating hours and room availability over winter due to a lack of staff from the border restrictions heading into winter made it difficult to recruit.
That didn’t stop swathes of tourists from hitting the town as Mt Hutt Skifield returned to pre-Covid visitation numbers to be close to its record years of 2018 and 2019, and even stayed open until Labour weekend.
“This was one of the biggest, busiest, quickest, most exhausting, entertaining, satisfying and super successful winter seasons for Ski Time,” Peter said.

• Jonathan Leask