It started out as a touring dinosaur show for kids and has evolved into a multimillion-dollar indigenous park concept.
A $36 million Waikato culture park has been proposed for Waipā, showcasing five different indigenous cultures in the Pacific Rim including Tainui Māori, Pasifika, Native Hawaiian, Australian Aboriginal and Native American.
The park is the brainchild of the Poihi-Bush family, who whakapapa to Tainui and Te Arawa, with support from 20 other indigenous entrepreneurs from Pacific Rim nations.
With a resource consent application soon to be filed, Hamilton-based founder Natalia Robson-Bush says, if all goes to plan, it will become the first of its kind in the world.
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Entrepreneur Natalia Robson-Bush, with the backing of 21 others, plans to create a Waikato culture park in Waipā.
“It was my father’s dying wish for us to fulfil this vision,” Robson-Bush told Stuff.
Her brother, Darren Bush, also known as “Dinosaur Darren the Legend Hunter”, used to run a popular dinosaur interactive show which toured the country, educating around 200,000 kids about prehistoric life and indigenous legends.
He attempted many times to turn his Dinosaurs Rock NZ interactive show into a theme park, but it never came to fruition, she said.
“When my dad died in 2016, at the funeral my whānau brought up stories of when my dad and my uncles used to go to different land viewings with Darren.
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The park would include Te Taniwha Valley dinosaur park, patupaiarehe (fairy people), Hawaiian wedding chapel and Pacific Ocean lagoon.
“He was always so supportive of the idea.”
Not wanting to give up on the family dream, Robson-Bush decided to do a feasibility study and if that stacked up she’d “give it a go”.
“Through the study I found a market of people really calling for something like this, and so we expanded from there.
“There hasn’t been a theme park in Waikato since Hobbiton. It’s time to create something a bit different that promotes indigenous culture in a unique and positive way.”
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Darren Bush used to run a touring dinosaur show for children, which has inspired the Waikato Culture Park.
Projected to cost around $5.4 million, phase one will include the five indigenous villages with a shallow lagoon in the middle representing the vast journeys each culture made.
With $1.5m already invested in the project, Robson-Bush said they hoped to get the other $4m from private investors, community groups and government funds.
Aiming to have it completed by February, the group will then roll out a Hawaiian wedding chapel, ancient dinosaur village, indigenous performing arts theatre, eco-warriors farm and schools programme, Native American wellness retreat and Fiji-style four-star hotel resort over the next four years.
The 120-hectare park’s theme will be based on love stories and ancient indigenous legends, in the hope of creating more joy and magic for children of all ages.
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Natalia Robson-Bush and farmer Jan Reekers. Reekers is due to sell his farm land to the project and will come on board as a shareholder in phase two.
Using Disneyland in Elohim and Polynesian Cultural Centre in Luau, Hawaii, as case studies, Robson-Bush said the Waikato Culture Park will incorporate a similar layout so it “maximises revenue and optimises experiences”.
“We also plan to build New Zealand’s largest ground-mounted solar farm on 2 hectares of land, which will produce 2 megawatts of power for the park and surrounding communities,” she said.
“This will mean the Waikato Culture Park could achieve a zero-net carbon footprint and Green Star rating, due to its use of green building materials, grey water and waste management recycling, rainwater harvesting and restoration of a native wetland area.”
She said the park would also provide 220 fulltime jobs and 30 apprenticeships through stage one.
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The proposed development of Waikato Culture Park off Collins Rd, near Temple View.
When asked if she was worried the concept was too ambitious, she said your ideas can’t be “stale” when it comes to a theme park.
She wasn’t worried about getting resource consent either.
“If you are going to go for a large theme park you have to have variety, and you have to have incentives for people to keep coming back.
“We want to serve around 309 schools in the Waikato, educating them about indigenous practices and sustainability as well as entertaining domestic and international tourists, and we want to give back to the community.
“It’s a big project, but we’ve received lots of support from Waipā council staff. Many people are behind the idea and just want to see it come to life.”
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Waikato Culture Park’s Native American founder of the Four Winds Wellness Retreat Lakota John.
