Secret Spot director Eric Kolver (left) and general manager Keith Kolver with one of their 12 hot tubs. Photo / Stephen Parker
Secret Spot director Eric Kolver (left) and general manager Keith Kolver with one of their 12 hot tubs. Photo / Stephen Parker
Secret Spot is no secret anymore.
The hot tub and bar complex has been drawing between 70 and 250 visitors a day since opening six weeks ago.
The 12 tubs and eight "shinny dip" foot tubs are filled with water drawn from a nearby spring which is then heated withbiofuel, filtered with sand and circulated every 20 minutes.
Director Eric Kolver and general manager Keith Kolver grew up on a farm near Paengaroa.
Secret Spot director Eric Kolver (left) and general manager Keith Kolver with one of their 12 hot tubs. Photo / Stephen Parker
The brothers' niche business idea came out of "a brainstorm in a rainstorm" five-and-a-half years ago.
Keith had an old canoe and they took it for a 60km trip in Te Urewera.
"We got caught in a rainstorm on the last day and we were freezing, There were big strong winds. So we started thinking happy thoughts. I thought of mulled wine, Eric thought of hot tubs and then the idea just sort of expanded over the afternoon."
A few weeks later Eric crunched some numbers and called Keith.
Secret Spot general manager Keith Kolver (left) and director Eric Kolver at their newly opened complex. Photo / Stephen Parker
"I reckon it's a goer," he said. "Are you keen?"
They say the project has been "good fun" since but could have been part of the Grand Designs television series.
"It took a bit longer, cost a little bit more but the result is really awesome," Eric said.
"We used to ride when this [Waipa] was a gravel car park and you'd have a beer at the back of the car and a catch-up. Really what we've tried to do is recreate that but in a nicer setting."
Twelve people are now employed by the complex.
The land is owned by Red Stag and Secret Spot has a long-term lease.
The first people through their doors on October 3 were 120 locals from businesses and organisations involved in getting the business going.
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Businesses have also started booking the space for Christmas parties, and members the Black Sticks women's team took time out in the tubs during their Rotorua training camp last week.
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