Taupō Top 10 Holiday Park co-owners Kris Blank (left) and Suzi Blank. Photo / Supplied
Taupō Top 10 Holiday Park co-owners Kris Blank (left) and Suzi Blank. Photo / Supplied
Two years from new business owner to winning a national industry award. And then they repeated it this year.
Last week the Taupō Top 10 Holiday Park won the Resco Best Upgrade Award Under $100,000 at the Holiday Parks Association of New Zealand national awards. They also won the award in 2020.
The family-owned holiday park is owned by Darren and Suzi Blank, and Matt and Kris Blank. But three years ago the four had completely different careers. Darren and Suzi were living in Auckland where Darren was a builder and Suzi the event sales manager for Auckland Museum. Matt and Kris were living in Hawke's Bay with Matt a fulltime helicopter engineer and Kris a banking business analyst.
"We saw the light from Auckland, and decided to shift down," said Darren.
"It was good to get out of the rat race," said Suzi.
The couples work week on, week off, and in the summer they all pull together to work full time, along with 16 staff.
"It's a good work-life balance," says Darren.
Darren said they got stuck in doing up the 5-acre property in Rangatira St, Taupō, that they bought in March 2019. Formerly the All Seasons Holiday Park, the new owners were invited to join the Top 10 Holiday Parks franchise just four months out from the Covid-19 lockdown.
"They said 'freshen up the toilets and you're in'. We are so grateful to have such a strong brand behind us," said Suzi.
Darren and Suzi Blank relaxing beside the plunge pool at the Taupō Top 10 Holiday Park. Photo / Rachel Canning
The park had 30 international guests for the duration of the Covid-19 March to May 2020 lockdown and was the only holiday park in the central North Island to stay open. Suzi says the guests felt safe at the holiday park because they were secure in their own individual bubbles.
"In a hotel there is a lot of shared space. But it isn't like that at a holiday park, you feel you have a high degree of control over your own environment," said Suzi.
The four owners worked hard to manage all the social distancing and cleaning requirements over lockdown. Keeping up with the changing government advice was challenging, so they grateful to be part of the Top 10 network.
"It was a stressful time, and they gave us a lot of support. The information from Amplify was also really useful, especially around wage subsidies and government support," says Suzi.
All their guests were eventually repatriated and Suzi remembers a Swiss couple who said they were going home to a nightmare.
"She is a nurse and he is a paramedic. They were flying straight back into the heart of the pandemic."
During the pandemic Darren renovated the kitchen, a small ablution block and the plunge pool, and went on to win the Best Renovation Under $100,000 award in 2020. In winter 2020, Darren tackled the next project, the larger ablution block, and last week Darren and Suzi flew to Blenheim to accept the 2021 award for the same category.
"Our bank said 'don't spend too much, as there is so much economic uncertainty'. We made it look like a first-class hotel and last summer we were as busy as the year before," said Suzi.
The renovated kitchen/dining room block at the holiday park. Photo / Supplied
"A lot of people thought we were crazy to invest money in renovations. But we were confident that, once lockdown was over, New Zealanders would still be travelling locally. We also thought people would be looking for places that had really good hygiene standards, and that having modern, clean bathrooms would be pretty important."
The couple says the pandemic has got a lot more Kiwis into the outdoors and business since the pandemic has been steady.
"We're so grateful to the New Zealanders that have continued to travel to Taupō. All four of us love spending time with people and want to create a real sense of community here. We all bring our own skills to the business and we're starting to get a lot of repeat customers, which is great. Darren will often wander through the campground in the evening chatting with our guests and getting the latest update on their families and holiday activities."
Taupō Top 10 Holiday Park co-owners Darren and Suzi Blank picked up the prize for best renovation under $100,000 at the Holiday Parks Association NZ awards. Photo / Supplied
A large heated swimming pool is the next project, which they hope will encourage people to stay longer and explore the Taupō district rather than just pass through. Darren says that will be the end of the renovations but probably the start of pursuing more business awards. They may enter more awards, perhaps the New Zealand Tourism Awards and the local Taupō Business Awards.
"We would like to chase an industry excellence award for tourism. And it would be good for our young staff to get some recognition for being rising stars." said Darren.
Darren and Suzi say their holiday park is a little gem, with lots of space, no traffic noise, views of Mt Tauhara and glimpses of Mt Ruapehu.
"Our main aim at the moment is to get more Taupō residents to recognise us. We are the oldest holiday park in Taupō, but not many people know we are here or how nice the holiday park is."
