Festive footy injury stalls Waitomo zipline
A leap for an ‘‘amazing header’’ during Christmas Day football left Rob Davis in a cast and temporarily closed his business.
However, the Waitomo Caves Zipline Park managing director is optimistic as he recovers from an Achilles tendon injury.
The reopening date for the park would depend on how his recovery progressed, Davis said.
The park has 10 ziplines – the longest among them runs for 280 metres.
Davis and wife Kelly had already changed things after Covid because of uncertainty around the virus and the lack of international tourists.
The business was still profitable after lockdown with Davis as the only fulltimer and the other staffers on reduced hours.
Then, on Christmas Day, he vowed he would be careful during a family football game.
‘‘I tried to leap a bit too high to perform an amazing header,’’ he said, ‘‘and I blew apart my Achilles tendon.’’
He is now in a cast and can’t get around all the zipline park terrain on crutches.
The couple tried keeping the business open for a week but it did not work to a level Davis was happy with, so they decided to close until he had recovered.
Davis described himself as an optimist and said the worst thing was processing the situation on the day he hurt himself.
‘‘It is the busiest time of the year. I want to be open. I don’t want to be closed.
‘‘It is not like we are going to go under or anything like that ... It is just unfortunate.’’
His main concern was customers who had booked in and now had to change their plans, and he is already making refunds.
Since the couple opened the park in May 2019, they have been working their way into the domestic and international tourism markets.
Last summer, with about three fulltime workers, about 50 people a day could be guided through the park, Davis said.
Families were a key market for the park, he said, but it could be very quiet mid-week.
The park’s closure also affected the Waitomo region, as businesses had been promoting themselves as a package, he said.
‘‘[Before, the tourist market] was significant enough for the major businesses that they didn’t necessarily have to worry about promoting Waitomo as a Kiwi destination where you come and stay the night and enjoy the area.
‘‘Now that has changed, that is where we need to go, marketingwise.’’