Rowing regatta to relaunch events in Waipā

Following uncertainty due to COVID-19 traffic light settings and the difficult decision to cancel hosting summer events at the Mighty River Domain, good news was delivered to Waipā residents at Tuesday’s Finance and Corporate Committee meeting.

Mighty River Domain site manager and Waipā District Council deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk told committee members during the delivery of the Mighty River Domain 2021 Annual Report, the venue would kick off hosting outdoor events again in late February with the North Island Junior Rowing Regatta.

“We are a step closer to bringing our sporting, cultural and conferencing back to Waipā,” Stolwyk said.

On February 26-27 around 1000 junior rowers, coaches and administrators will converge on the event hosted by Karapiro Rowing.

Due to the Covid Red settings, this regatta will be run under the Covid Red protocols, this will mean schools are split into 100 person zones, all participants will need to be fully vaccinated and there is no provision for spectators.

“We are hoping this event will kickstart our event industry however with no spectators it will be a soft restart,” Stolwyk said.

“It has been a difficult time and I know how much our hospitality and accommodation operators are looking forward to welcoming back all our events.”

She cautioned those attending that the regatta would be hosted under strict COVID-19 Red Light settings guidelines and every member including competitor, coach, manager, support person of the school must scan the COVID-19 Contact Tracing QR Code before entering.

“Every person who wishes to enter the venue must be able to produce a valid My Vaccine Pass when requested.

“It is very important we follow the guidelines very carefully to ensure we are able to deliver these events for Waipā. I have a great deal of confidence in our event hosts.”

Stolwyk said the world-class infrastructure at the domain had placed the district in a strong recovery position while excellent relationships with event hosts, corporates, and clubs had made navigation through any changes easier.

“We have also been able to build up an experienced team of individuals who can adapt well in many environments so I am confident we hold a unique advantage over other venues. I look forward to a very challenging year and hope the next annual report is able to provide better news.”

Future legislation may also require event hosts to invest more heavily into the management of their event such as in security for the monitoring of mandatory vaccination passports.

“We expect this may prohibit some of our events from being able to return to the domain unless further financial assistance is secured.”

She said the year to date had been very discouraging and the long tail of COVID-19 was having a huge impact on the tourism and event industry, even more so than 2020.

“Moving forward from this we are expecting at least two years of recovery. Bringing events and accommodation back up to capacity is yet unknown with Government legislation and requirements not yet available.

“We will have to adapt to any new regulations and how we operate maybe look very different.”