“The first thing I said was, ‘Pickleball sounds ridiculous,’ but I gave it a go. I like to try new things,” he said.
“And within five minutes, I was hooked. Silly name aside, it’s unique.”
Inspired by the accessibility and community atmosphere, he returned to New Zealand with a vision to create a similar experience locally.
“We had been in Wellington for seven years at the time, hadn’t seen anything like it and started toying with the idea of what that could look like here.”
When he started pondering the “ridiculous idea”, there were no venues dedicated to pickleball.
“We were positioned to be the first one in the country, but Topspin in Hamilton ended up beating us to it.”
The couple moved to Tauranga from Wellington in January 2025. When a building came up for lease, Barabash quit his day job of nine years to work on the facility full-time.
The family behind Pickleball Park NZ: Shawn and Holly Barabash with their daughter.
“I believe in what I’m doing, I believe that wholeheartedly this will have a positive impact on the community, and that’s what I’m all about.”
Pickleball Park NZ, in Tauriko, has been developed with an overall investment of around $185,000.
The courts were about $4000, with further infrastructure costs including about $6000 for nets and an estimated $25,000 for fencing.
The total includes not only the development of the courts but also the setup of an on-site coffee shop and retail space.
Barabash said there was a “hole in the market” and demand for people wanting to hire a court on their own schedule.
“Unless you’re doing a session through one of the clubs and they’ve hired a multi-purpose venue, there’s no indoor pickleball to be played elsewhere.”
The venue features four individually fenced courts with no overlapping markings from other sports for “undisrupted play”.
“The other benefit is we are surfaced with pickleball-specific surfacing, which is an acrylic-based gritty surfacing that allows the ball to react how it’s supposed to.”
The facility offers beginner-friendly introduction sessions, organised play for all skill levels, hourly court hire, and access to a ball machine for training and skill development.
Pickleball is a paddle sport played on a badminton-sized court with a lower net and uses a solid paddle and a perforated plastic ball.
“What we offer is the purest form of this game possible.”
Equipment such as paddles and balls is also available, allowing beginners to play without preparation.
“It’s super-low barrier to entry, it’s gender indifferent, it’s age indifferent, takes 10 to 15 minutes to figure out the rules, then you start having a good time,” Barabash said.
The facility will be open to the public from 2pm on Sunday, but still needs the court fencing to be completed.
“People are absolutely juiced to play somewhere that has one set of lines and a consistent bounce.
“But it’s not just about pickleball, it’s about relationships and feeling like you’re part of a community.”
Kaitlyn Morrell is a journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.