Company digs deep for expansion

Real estate under the ground does have its attractions, at least for listed company Tourism Holdings.

Its Kelly Tarlton's operation in Auckland has just found space for a new exhibit by updating its seawater filtration systems as part of a $12 million expansion programme.

By removing sand filters, installed in the underground former wastewater tanks in 1984 to clean seawater, the firm has opened up space for new exhibits.

The company has spent $6 million upgrading the business and plans to spend the same amount again at Kelly Tarlton's.

It is also looking underground at Waitomo, wherework is almost finished that will allow the 12m-deep Ruakuri cave attraction to open in the next few weeks.

This cave system has been closed to walking visitors since the 1980s, although more than 33,000 tourists raft it each year as part of a blackwater experience.

Ruakuri is the longest and most complex of the three tourist caves, which include Waitomo and Aranui.

Updating the sand filtration systems at Kelly Tarlton's has increased the usable floor area beneath Tamaki Drive by 15 per cent - a boost for a business that operations manager Andrew Baker describes as, "like working on a ship or submarine".

The new area is in the centre of Kelly Tarlton's, between the Antarctic Encounter and the original Underwater World.

It was created to house Stingray Bay, the open-topped 350,000-litre tank that allows visitors to get close to the rays.

The exhibit replicates their natural habitat and includes room for the attraction's oldest stingray, Phoebe, to stretch her wings, which have a span of 2m.

A food kiosk, entry into other exhibition spaces and education areas are also housed in the new area.

"The vision for what we've created is for a new hub where visitors can view the Stingrays and grab a coffee and make decisions about where to go next," Baker said.

The hub, which opened in December, has an external viewing window looking partly outside and underwater, depending on how high the tide is, but mainly across to central Auckland and the North Shore.

Fitting out is underway on a new children's interactive area which will have touch screens for toddlers to intermediate-age children and an exploration area where school pupils can use microscopes to explore marine life and examine samples.

The first $6 million was spent in two stages: creating the new filtration plant and building the Stingray Bay.

Baker said the vision to remove the original filters came from staff looking for expansion options.

"It's been 10 years since there has been any significant capital spent here, which was the Antarctic Encounter and this is the culmination of all those ideas," Baker said.

Two filters, 40m by 10m, were removed from the hub area and replaced by the new filtration plant which requires less than a quarter of that area.

Further expansion of the floor area at Kelly Tarlton's is limited by physical obstacles.

"There's no other real estate we can open up within our boundaries," Baker said.

"The rest of the wastewater treatment tanks are all backfilled to support Tamaki Drive, so there's no more potential to expand and we're not planning any more in the immediate future.

"We're really stumped for space without excavating the backfilled area or going into the harbour and we're not planning to do either."

Further projects include renovating the shark tank - the original Underwater World where tourists view marine life above while standing on a moving travelator, upgrading the

Antarctic Encounter and developing new ways for people to get closer to the penguins.

"You get only a very small amount of time looking at them," Baker said.

"We want to generate new ways to have people view those penguins for longer by creating viewing galleries or platforms. We want people to interact with the penguin keepers and increase their Antarctic education experience."

LOOKING DOWN

Listed Tourism Holdings is looking underground to expand two attractions.

Space that housed seawater filters at Kelly Tarlton's has been reorganised. The filters have been replaced and shifted to give tourists a bigger subterranean area to explore, potentially drawing more visitors.

Guided walking tours of the Ruakuri cave system will open soon at Waitomo.