Rarotonga

Bigtime hotel business comes to

For many years accommodation for the traveller has been one of the great shortcomings of Rarotonga.

Many visitors suffered for over half a century from the eccentricities and crudities of the old buildings which used to be known as the Hotel Rarotonga, and most recently as Otera Rarotonga.

They now house the Tourist Authority, the Police Department and the Totalisator Agency Board. The operations of the last-named must be a tourist attraction in its own right.

The overseas gambler attracted by a mild flutter would be intrigued by the mysteries of the betting system.

However, the only real interest the old hotel must now have for those seeking the thrills of island life is the bar, known as the Banana Court.

Here are gloom, rudimentary service, loud music, disorder, and old island identities. Whether it is a suitable Mecca for sophisticated tourists is highly debatable.

Of late, local and overseas interests have been looking increasingly closely at the accommodation and food ser vice business. There are now the Blue Boy Soft Ice Cream van and piecart, the Cafe Polynesie, the Outrigger Restaurant, the Vai Mai Steakhouse, and the Trailways Hotel, among others.

The quality varies, but in some in stances the service and the food are of a surprisingly high standard.

Island people speak in excited terms of the impending impact of a “tourist boom”. Perhaps their expec tations will come to fruition, but by no stretch of the imagination could the present unco-ordinated offerings of accommodation, food services, transport and the other trappings of full-scale tourism be seen as capable of meeting a steady and reasonably large visitor trade.

A bold attempt to capitalise upon the potential development of Rarotonga as a South Pacific visitor resort is nearing completion at White Sands on the south-western side of the island, about 10 miles from Avarua.

Cook Islands Hotels Ltd, whose prin cipal shareholders are Air New Zealand, the Tourist Hotel Corpora tion of New Zealand, and the Cook

Islands Government, have invested about SNZS million in the project, the principal contractors being Mainline- Brown and Doherty.

The Rarotonga Hotel has been designed by a grouping of New Zealand architects.

The basic concept has been tc achieve airiness and an uncluttered aspect in the main public areas while at the same time providing a max imum of privacy in the air conditioned accommodation units which are spaced out across the “village” complex. The exterior walls are in a pale yellow, much of the woodwork has been left in natural colours and wooden shingles have been used for roofing.

The project is seen as being developed in two stages and one will provide 103 rooms, each with a dou ble and a single bed.

Curtains and bed coverings are in blues and greens, and pandanus mats made in the outer islands of the group will be used as mats and wall hangings. Australian quarry tiles have been used extensively as a flooring material, and much of the furniture is of cane manufacture from Cebu in the Philippines.

The hotel has the usual public places, including a conference room to seat 200 people, and there is a con ventional swimming pool area.

The site is on the edge of the lagoon, with a pleasant, white sandy

beach and a limited-area lagoon which offers clean swimming in com paratively shallow water.

The setting of the hotel will mean that guests will enjoy some of the most striking sunsets to be' viewed in the Pacific.

The Tourist Hotel Corporation of New Zealand will be responsible for the management of the hotel, and it will shortly begin training local staff.

Initially, the hotel will employ 82 staff members and this will be an im mediate influence upon the employ ment situation in the Cooks, as about 60 will be Polynesians.

Present predictions are that about two-thirds of the Polynesian staff will be recruited on Rarotonga, with the remainder being Cook Islanders who will be returning from New Zealand.

The hotel management has already found that it can draw upon a pool of Cook Islanders in New Zealand, mainly in the 30-40 age group, who wish to return to their home islands after spending about 10 years in New Zealand.

The success or otherwise of the hotel must also be a significant factor in the development plans of Air New Zealand, which is presently the only international air carrier servicing the Cooks. However, it is rumoured on the beach that an American airline may well appear on the scene in the near future.

The new Rarotonga Hotel.