Rotorua rafters River Rats are struggling from Covid-19 and say level 1 can't come soon enough.
Alert level 2 has been welcomed by many Rotorua businesses eager to reopen after the Covid-19 lockdown but for others, it's another kick in the guts.
Justin Hutton from River Rats Raft and Kayak said the business had not experienced anything as dire as the impact of Covid-19's lockdown.
Thetourism company has been operating in Rotorua for 38 years but now its future hangs in limbo as it grapples with the fallout from the pandemic.
"We've survived recessions, we've survived SARS and everything else but no business has a contingency plan for zero income, which is what we have been dealing with for the last nine weeks."
Hutton said he was encouraged they were still receiving phone calls from people keen to book for rafting down the Kaituna. However, he was unable to do anything more than kayaking trips until level 1.
The lack of business was heartbreaking "but not as heartbreaking as the first few weeks where we had to give $10,000s in refunds and had $100,000's in cancellations.
Justin Hutton from River Rats Raft and Kayak. Photo / Andrew Warner
"When you are working pretty long hours and all you are doing is cancelling trips, seeing that money disappear, that's heartbreaking."
Hutton said the business still had overheads to pay and there had been "a pretty big shortfall in wages", despite the government subsidy. He credited the subsidy for helping the business retain its permanent staff, for now.
He hoped the business would survive through its kayaking options, which are allowed under level 2 rules. He was also brainstorming options to reinvent the business to help keep it afloat.
"We can do some kayaking but prior to Covid-19, only 20 per cent of our custom were Kiwis and only 10 per cent were kayak trips. So we aren't expecting it to be our saviour."
Rotorua Rafting owner and operator Sam Sutton by the Kaituna River with the Okere Gates behind. Photo / File
Despite this, Hutton said they were "lucky" to have kayaking trips available and hoped support from locals and domestic tourism would help turn the tide.
"We really need Kiwis to get out and support us. We've always tried to be part of the community. We've never run our business to squeeze every dollar out of it and every year we donate $6000 to the community. Now we are hoping that Kiwis will return the favour in our time of need."
Sam Sutton from Rotorua Rafting said potential provisions allowing some operation for adventure tourism such as rafting were still being discussed between the industry and Government.
There was hope some rafting could start again from as early as this weekend.
"We are getting there. We are still taking tentative bookings while we try to figure it out. It's a dynamic situation."
In the meantime, Sutton and his staff were working for his sideline business Rotorua Landscaping.
"We've diversified into landscaping. We've been busy doing that but we want to go back on the water."
Okere Falls Store owner Sarah Uhl said many of their customers were from the rafting fraternity and it was a "tough time" for them right now.
"Our community is raft guides.
Okere Falls Store is traditionally popular with rafting guides but has felt the blow of rafting operations being unable to work during lockdown. Photo / File
"Our business benefits from the rafting and tourism out here. We are expecting a definite slow down from that, we just don't know know how much impact this might have."
Uhl said she hoped a potential increase in domestic tourism would help but "it's pretty much a waiting game to see what people will do".
"It's really tough on the rafters. It's slow for them in winter anyway. This is traditionally their slow season so this is a blow for them.
"I'm sure they will get through but it will be a bit of a roller coaster."
Destination Rotorua's Michelle Templer said the city's rafting experience was one of the adventure activities Rotorua was well recognised for, "particularly with the attraction of being able to raft down the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world".
Templer said Destination Rotorua was focused on marketing local activities, including rafting, ahead of the next school holidays.
"We're also running our In Our Element campaign, which encourages locals to explore the range of world-class activities on their doorstep and invite their friends and family from around the country to visit as well."
