Finlay Park Adventure Camp Winter Update 2023

We are excited to announce that we have a new set of accommodation on site. With our big vision to replace the main camp building we are starting with decommissioning the upstairs Apartment cabins. Although it will be sad to see them unused, we have a new set of accommodation blocks called “The Rapids”. The Rapids are 9 portacom buildings with 9 beds (4x sets of bunks and 1 single bed) in each. The Rapids will be available for use from Sept 2023.
The rapids are located near the top of the slide where the first camp house used to be. No 1 house was moved on to camp and has been used by a number of staff through its time.  While we have to say goodbye to the first house on camp it is exciting to see the progress toward the new buildings. We look forward to sharing “The Rapids” with you. Contact Joe if you would like to know more about the accommodation changes.

We have the Lagoon Suites, River Cabins and Lake Cabins, so why The Rapids?
Before Finlay Park was Finlay Park and before the Karapiro dam and before the Hora Hora dam there was a massive set of rapids called the Aniwaniwa Rapids just up stream from where Finlay Park is today. Aniwaniwa means rainbow and the valley surrounding the rapids was constantly filled with spray and this would have caused many rainbows to be permanently visible. These rapids would have been larger than Huka Falls with all of the extra water that is added to the Waikato River as it flows down.

After an incredible 30+ years as Camp director at Finlay Park Ian Fraser has decided that it is time that he moves aside from the director role. Ian, Christine and Nicole arrived at Finlay Park in 1987 and in that time Ian and Christine have raised their family and also grown Finlay Park to what it is today. Ian has worked tirelessly to improve the facilities at Finlay Park and his ideas and enthusiasm is visible across Finlay Park. But is it not in the buildings that Ian has had the biggest impact. It is the people. And for Ian, it is always the people. There have been hundreds of thousands of people through Finlay Park. Staff, campers, teachers, parents or kids. Ian has time for each and every individual. We will never be able to measure the impact by Ian’s time at Finlay Park.
The great news is that Finlay Park will not be losing Ian. He will be staying here to keep working on Special projects so his skill, ability and experience will still be available.

With Ian’s resignation Finlay Park was left with a big hole to fill and the Board went on a search for the next Camp Director. The role was advertised and we found the best person for the role. And they were already here at Finlay Park. Gus Johannes started at Finlay Park in 2000 and you may know him best at the current Health and Safety Manager. Gus, Nicole and their 6 kids have all made camp home. Gus is excited to take over as Camp Director for Finlay Park and is looking forward to all of the challenges that are ahead.  Gus will take over his new role September 5

Main Pool
How many hours does it take to scrub each and every tile around the pool? The answer is a lot, but with the re-grouting and cleaning the pool is looking amazing again.

Village Pathways
We completed the replacement of the last of the wooden pathways with concrete pathways.

New House
With the loss of house #1 we have built a replacement staff house on site. House #5 stands where the workshop was originally placed and has a double garage and a large shed for camp use.

If you would like to support the work that Finlay Park does there are a number of ways.
Pray for Finlay Park we really value our prayer partners and would encourage you to continue to pray for us.

Give a little page https://givealittle.co.nz/org/finlay-park-adventure-camp

Contact Finlay Park directly to support us at office@finlaypark.co.nz