Opinion: There's a lake in Rotorua?

An artist's impression of the Lakefront upgrade. Photo / Supplied

So there's a lake in Rotorua?

Who knew?

Certainly not me as a naive 17-year-old from Timaru.

With my heart set on a newspaper reporting career, I came to Rotorua on work experience while studying journalism in Timaru.

It was June 1996 and I stayed with a friend who showed me around while I was here for two weeks.

I came back again in my holidays in September and had another great trip schmoozing my way into the paper for four or five days while also being shown some more sights

When I was offered a fulltime job here in October, I figured it was high time I learned all there was to know about Rotorua (in hindsight I should have done that the first time I came).

Blow me down, there's a massive lake right in the middle of the city!

Just in case you think I'm blind, the first time I flew up here, I landed in Taupo and the second time my plane was diverted to Hamilton. I can't remember why I never spotted the lake when I left both times but let's put it down to my propensity to fall asleep quickly on planes.

So here's my point. I was a visitor to the city. Twice. On both occasions I was shown around what was deemed the cool things to do in Rotorua. We went to Skyline Rotorua (at night), Kuirau Park, Te Puia (then the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute), Whakarewarewa Village, Redwoods, the Landing Cafe at Lake Tarawera, the Pig and Whistle and Wimpys.

The Lakefront wasn't an attraction.

A massive development announced last week at the Lakefront is awesome news for the city and the potential is huge.

While I'm a regular these days, simply because the Volcanic Playground is a hit with my 3-year-olds, it's looking a bit tired. As a side note, I hope the plans include another good playground, maybe a gated one, as the proposed boardwalk doesn't look too toddler or young child friendly.

But for Rotorua to stay on top of the tourism game we have to spend money and stay fresh. The beauty with this deal is it isn't all coming from our rates.

Rotorua will get $24.7 million from the Government's Provincial Growth Fund ($19.9 m of which is for the Lakefront development with the remainder the forest).

If done right, it will bring jobs and visitors and we will get our money's worth.

Believe you me, I see redat the thought of ratepayer money being wasted - my blood has only recently been reduced to a simmer over the Mudtopia debacle.

But this time hats off to the Rotorua Lakes Council for its forward thinking, leadership, hard work and successful bid for a bucket load of cash that looks set to build us something pretty special.