Geothermal resource ripe for harnessing at prawn park site
Surplus land and a prized geothermal heat resource are ripe for harnessing to take New Zealand’s only prawn park attraction in new directions.
A geothermally heated theme park, thermal-boosted propagation of edible plants, or a business cluster fuelled by geothermal heat are among possibilities mooted for the Huka Prawn Park.
Since opening for business a few kilometres north of Taupo¯ 35 years ago, the prawn park has established itself as one of the town’s most popular visitor attractions.
Straddling SH1 beside the Waikato River in the Wairakei Tourist Park, it is the world’s only geothermally heated prawn park, along with related visitor activities and Taupo¯’s only riverside restaurant.
The operation has long attracted families with activities such as behind-the-scenes tours, prawn and trout feeding, adventure trails, aqua bikes and pedal boats.
Bayleys Taupo¯ salesperson Gary Harwood says large tracts of undeveloped land and a unique, and largely untapped, geothermal resource offer new owners tremendous opportunities to expand and diversify. “The opportunity is there to further develop the existing park as a unique family destination or to use the available geothermal resource and location to develop new opportunities.”
In particular, a new heating system making use of the site’s geothermal resource would open the way for unique future options, he said.
“It could be the creation of a new geothermally heated theme park, offering ‘heat experiences’, that are only limited by your imagination – or perhaps developing the infrastructure to host a cluster of businesses such as brewers, coffee roasters or honey producers utilising the low-carbon heat source.
“Alternatively, the new system could be used as a source of heating to support the propagation of high-end edible plants, other warm water aquaculture species or health products,” said Harwood.
Future projects could benefit from the Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry Fund, set up in 2020 to accelerate the decarbonisation of industrial process heat. The Government this year announced a $650 million expansion of the fund.
The buildings and business sustaining Huka Prawn Park, Karetoto Rd, Taupo¯, are being marketed for sale as a going concern, priced as $2.9 million plus stock at valuation plus GST (if any), through Bayleys Taupo¯.
The business operates on about 12.8ha of land under a long-term lease from the Crown.
The land is zoned Taupo¯ Rural Environment under the council’s district plan and includes several hectares of surplus land which offers scope for expansion.
Several buildings are included in the sale, offering a total floor area of
3158sq m.
These include a prawn nursery and hatchery with a floor area of over
2600sq m, a pump house, viewing platform and staff area. Also included is the restaurant which seats up to
300, with a large commercial kitchen, bar, retail and reception areas.
Extensive on-site parking is available with space for buses and campervans plus an electric vehicle charging station.
Other business assets include extensive resource consents to take and discharge large volumes of hot and cold water, a heating system with substantial infrastructure to circulate hot water around the park, along with numerous interactive water activities.