Wairarapa tourism operators gain top environmental quality awards

Two Wairarapa tourism operators have joined a prestigious group of top performers after being awarded Qualmark Enviro Gold awards.

Wharekauhau Country Estate and Castlepoint Holiday Park & Motels were recently awarded the gold honours after achieving top standards across the five key action areas of energy efficiency, waste management, water conservation, community activities and conservation initiatives. The two tourism operators, which cover the spectrum of accommodation in the region, are the first to be acknowledged with the gold award in the Wairarapa. They join around 100 other gold award operators nationwide.

Ian Holland manager of Castlepoint Holiday Park & Motels said he was proud to achieve the gold award, which reflected their philosophy of having a sustainable business and being a responsible tourism operator.

“We’re very pleased to receive an Enviro Gold as acknowledgment of the many processes and practices we’ve put in place have worked,” said Mr Holland. “Qualmark has always been the sign of quality in New Zealand tourism. With our Qualmark 4 star rated Holiday Park and now the Enviro Gold award which are both international, domestic tourists will be able to make more informed decisions about where they choose to stay.”

Kristy de Lange, general manager of Wharekauhau Country Estate, said the recognition was most welcome and reaffirmed her team’s philosophy of caring for the environment.
“Many of the staff at Wharekauhau live and work out here and are passionate about the surrounds. Taking care of the environment for us, just comes naturally,” she said. “We can only hope that the heightened awareness of the challenges with the environment bring more people to action in protecting what we have in New Zealand.”

Both businesses took several steps in order to achieve the Enviro Gold award. For instance at Wharekauhau Country Estate food scraps are placed in a pig bucket and coffee grounds go to the garden. They also compost their own green waste, make an effort to conserve energy wherever possible and work with the Department of Conservation in doing beach clean ups and monitoring the breeding sites of native birds.

Water conservation is a major priority for the Castlepoint Holiday Park as unlike many other tourism providers they have no access to town supply water. As such

guests are encouraged to use the coin operated communal showers and changing shower heads to ‘low flow’ has made a big difference to their water consummation and energy costs.

Both providers also worked closely with the Sustainable Tourism Advisor in Regions (STAR) Programme advisor John Gilberthorpe, who provided mentoring assistance to help them develop sustainability initiatives within their business. The STAR programme is a Ministry of Tourism funded initiative to provide tourism operators with guidance and the tools to enhance their environmental performance. Destination Wairarapa obtained the contract to deliver this programme within the region in 2008.

“John had some very useful ideas and was able to record, photograph and produce a report that we were pleased to present as part of our evidence. Having the support and clarification was great,” said Mr Holland. “With developing a checklist and identifying our goals for initiatives, it helped with forward planning for any upgrades and maintenance projects.”

Mr Holland, who has run the Castlepoint Holiday Park & Motels with his wife Pauline for the last five years and is now passing the reins over to new managers, said achieving the gold award was a wonderful leaving present.

“Our philosophy for the Holiday Park has been about continuous quality improvement, which has included ways to make savings, to be part of the community and provide guests with a place they will want to keep returning to. The practices are now in place for this to continue and the challenge will be never to stop thinking about new initiatives.”

Mrs de Lange said the award would have positive ramifications for the business and long term, for the land.

“Wharekauhau entertains a mix of international and local visitors and being green seems to be important to all of them, but in different degrees. For instance, some guests are more mindful of water usage and others are intent on recycling. To be able to discuss with them the various initiatives we are doing shows that we are not just talk. And we have also taken a number of ideas on board from guests that are passionate on the subject,” she said.

“(Looking ahead) I think it’s a natural progression to find ways to do things better, but it will be easy for us to continue doing what the farmers in this area have been teaching for years.

Qualmark New Zealand Limited is New Zealand tourism's official quality agency. It is a government and private sector partnership between Tourism New Zealand and New Zealand Automobile Association. Qualmark licenses professional and trustworthy New Zealand tourism businesses to use the Qualmark 'tourism's official quality mark' to help international and domestic travellers select places to stay, things to do and ways to get around.