The long established but still popular Waipuna Lodge in suburban Auckland is giving its rooms a new look.
Sited alongside the Waipuna lagoon at Mt Wellington, the Lodge has seen thousands of weddings, conferences and business seminars over the years but was getting a little dated. In 2002, the owners decided on a soft refurbishment but have now begun a serious improvement to the rooms. Hamilton-based designer and architect Peter Were has been brought in to work on the fresh room designs and to bring his 30 years of hospitality interior work into play.
His work to date has been to revamp and modernise the bathrooms and the next project is to once more refurb the function rooms. The 147-room property with its several presidential suites is frequently fully booked out and is a popular provider for the large adjoining industrial area.
Originally it was a motor lodge and more recently that older section was the last part of the property to be let. Now those rooms are being given a full makeover rather than being the “also-rans” on the property.
Waipuna Lodge operates as a four and a half star hotel and is owned by the Mt Wellington Trust who also own the Landmark Tavern in Panmure and the new Conference Suites in the Highbrook industrial development.
The bathroom side of the refurbishment is interesting in that the designer was looking for something that was “bulletproof”. In this instance he worked with Boa Athukoraia of Project Floors and developed an outstanding splashback effect using vinyl floor planks.
