Taranaki packed with out-of-town visitors
New Zealand’s borders may be shut, but that hasn’t slowed the number of visitors coming into Taranaki this summer.
Carl Hayman, who owns New Plymouth boat firm Chaddy’s Charters, has been taking out as many boatloads of people as he can each day.
Hayman said Taranaki is a place people come to visit, not just stop in because they’re passing through.
‘‘A lot of New Zealanders are getting out and exploring,’’ he said.
Hayman’s partner, Kiko Matthews, said their charters and equipment hire have drawn in many from out of town.
‘‘We’ve been very busy,’’ Matthews said.
Matthews is weeks away from giving birth but still found herself giving paddleboarding lessons to visitors in recent days.
The pair have only taken over Chaddy’s Charters in recent months so don’t know if this is normal or not, but they do know they’ve had an influx of people from out of town.
The weekends tend to bring people from Whanganui and over the Christmas break they’ve had people from all over New Zealand.
They included Hamilton’s Annie Turner and 14 members of her family. ‘‘It was just awesome,’’ Turner said of the charter.
Each year, one of them picks a different spot to go for a break after Christmas – this year was Taranaki and they’ve loved it. ‘‘There’s so much to do here.’’
Quest New Plymouth owner Ross McCabe said tourists had come in waves, but Quest had been relatively busy overall. ‘‘A lot of people are coming in and exploring New Plymouth,’’ he said. ‘‘A couple of guys that I deal with say it’s becoming the next Queenstown.’’
He said they’d had people come from all over New Zealand.
‘‘There’s people doing big trips, the length of the country.’’
punake Holiday Park owner Julian Harkess said they had been their same busy selves, but things had stepped up a notch.
‘‘It’s been busier earlier [than usual].’’ He said most people had been Taranaki locals, but there were also out of towners.
Belt Road Seaside Holiday Park owner Peter Crawford said they had been as busy as in years gone past.
He was interested to see what February would be like as that is when the holiday park usually gets international guests.
‘‘We’re really glad to have a good regular following. That’s probably what will get us through.’’