Breeding boost for Prawn Park
Tourist attraction puts problems in rear view mirror
Huka Prawn Park is one step closer to having its own prawns back on the menu with new import licences close to being signed and a new geothermal heating system installed to keep the little critters snug and warm.
The Taupō-based tourism business has teamed up with electricity producer Contact Energy to install a new geothermal heat exchange system which provides the park’s 19 pools with low carbon heat.
The park has also enlisted the help of an Israel-based biotech firm and genetics professor to help with the breeding of its new prawns, which the park’s owners say should be back on the menu by the end of this year.
Park co-owner Richard Klein said a three-year joint venture with Contact Energy, and the recent renewal of the park’s fresh water and geothermal resource consents for the next 35 years, have helped to secure its future.
Klein said the new heating system would transform the business, resulting in a ‘‘multitude of opportunities for growth and development for the business and its iconic site’’.
Its new heat exchange system can handle water at temperatures of up to 130C at a rate of 5000 litres per minute, and could heat all the park’s ponds to ‘‘spa pool temperatures’’ all year round.
‘‘That’s equivalent to 30,000 spa pools sitting at 38C even in the middle of winter,‘‘ Klein said.
Founded in 1987 to grow giant Malaysian river prawns using geothermal water from Contact Energy’s nearby Wairakei Geothermal Power Station, the park’s own prawns have been off the menu due to breeding problems since December 2020, but imported prawns are still on offer in its restaurant.
Klein said they were working with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) on a new prawn import licence and were ‘‘about 95% of the way there and working to a deadline of having that complete this year’’.
‘‘With the conclusion of our most recent larval run, we have been able to produce roughly 35,000 new baby prawns into our facilities.
‘‘These significant milestones and the new heat exchange system means we are another step closer to restocking our ponds with prawns and ramping up our breeding programme to achieve our end goal of having the ever popular prawn fishing back.’’
The park was listed for sale in early 2021, and was still on the market, but Klein said after more than 30 years running the park, they were in no great hurry to sell, ‘‘we are charging on like we would be running it for the next 50 years’’, he said.
Currently, the park is open five days a week from Friday to Tuesday, and Klein said with tourism numbers picking up he hoped to fully re-open by summer.
‘‘We are also developing some new activities that we want to keep under our hats until they are ready, so watch this space.
‘‘Work is continuously going into our current procedures and practices in order to improve on the tried and tested models that have proven successful in the past.
‘‘With modified methods, and a deep passion we are striving to create a practice that will last, and bring happy and healthy prawns into the park for years to come,’’ he said.