Investor puts $16m in cultural attraction

By SIMON HENDERY

A low-profile investment company which owns a large stake in medical supplies distributor Ebos has become the $16 million backer of a cultural tourism attraction being built at Bastion Pt.

Te Pa - a joint venture between Ngati Whatua o Orakei Maori Trust Board and private company Oceania Attractions - is being built in a valley about 300m west of the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial.

The complex will have a 650-seat auditorium and run a three-times-a-day show featuring live music and dance performances and images projected onto a 15m-high "waterscreen".

It will also include a restaurant with a Maori-Pacific menu, a "living village" showcasing Maori carvers and weavers, a native plants nature track, and a souvenir shop.

Oceania Attractions managing director Kim Hegan said that after a search for a backer for the project, a deal had been finalised with investment firm Whyte Adder, which will contribute the $16 million cost of the project in return for an 80 per cent stake in Oceania.

Whyte Adder's investment portfolio includes a 26 per cent stake in Christchurch-based listed company Ebos Group, a distributor of medical supplies.

Its directors are Ebos deputy chairman Peter Kraus and fellow Ebos directors Harry Vollemaere and Barry Wallace.

Construction of Te Pa is expected to start in November and the complex is expected to open in the early part of next year.

The project still requires resource consent but Hegan said that process was expected to be "fairly straightforward" given the plans had been the subject of public consultation through the Ngati Whatua o Orakei Reserves Board, a joint body of the iwi and Auckland City Council which administers land at Bastion Pt.

Hegan said it would appeal to both locals and international visitors on package tours.

"As time goes on tourists are becoming more and more sophisticated.

"They want a real interaction with Maori as opposed to a once-over-lightly plastic tiki experience. We're firmly aimed at that - entertaining but not denigrating."

Hegan said he expected Te Pa to attract 150,000 visitors in its first year, with numbers then growing.