Local Democracy Reporting found the building looked generally worn, with numerous areas of cracked paint, holes in windows and a patched roof. On the warm afternoon, an unpleasant odour was distinct but not overpowering.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had so many people complain about them, absolutely disgusted,\u201d Guy, a former Tauranga City councillor of 12 years, said.<\/p>\n
He said he had made multiple unsuccessful attempts to raise the issue with the council. In his view, \u201cthey\u2019ve made no attempt to even keep it clean\u201d.<\/p>\n
Whakarewarewa Living M\u0101ori Village, New Zealand\u2019s oldest continuous M\u0101ori tourism experience, welcomes more than 100,000 visitors a year.<\/p>\n
Guy said that many of his passengers are \u201cfresh off the tarmac\u201d in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Rotorua is often their first stop, with Whakarewarewa a likely first experience. After a long bus ride, however, \u201cnature calls\u201d and the toilet block becomes one of the first impressions they get of the city and the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWelcome to New Zealand, right?\u201d <\/p>\n
Inside the toilet block at the Whakawerawera M\u0101ori Village on Tryon St, Rotorua. Photo \/ Mathew Nash<\/p>\n
Rotorua Lakes Council community experience group manager Alex Wilson confirmed the toilet block was a council responsibility and it had received three complaints about it in the past 12 months.<\/p>\n
She said cleaning occurred three times daily but conditions were still \u201cnot up to the standard\u201d the council wanted.<\/p>\n
The council is responsible for 70 toilet facilities in the district, with maintenance and renewal work prioritised to fit within allocated budgets, Wilson said.<\/p>\n
Factors considered to prioritise work included the age and condition of facilities, cost and use.<\/p>\n
The public toilet block at the Whakawerawera M\u0101ori Village on Tryon St, Rotorua. Photo \/ Mathew Nash<\/p>\n
A $12,000 tidy-up of the building is scheduled for next week and will include interior and exterior painting.<\/p>\n
A full renewal of the old toilet block was estimated to cost at least $250,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhakarewarewa Living M\u0101ori Village plans to build its own toilets next year and any future plans for the existing facilities are to be decided,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
Village marketing and communications officer Renee Raimona-Hunter said it had been in talks with the council for the village to build its own toilets and she hopes the work will start before the end of this year.<\/p>\n
Whakarewarewa Living M\u0101ori Village plans to build its own toilets next year. Photo \/ Mathew Nash<\/p>\n
Local Democracy Reporting spoke to two tourists at the location last week.<\/p>\n
Canadian visitor Mason said the toilets were better than some he had encountered in other countries, but it was \u201cunusual\u201d to see facilities so bad in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are a bit dirty and not very appealing, but they are a toilet, not many are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asked if he thought the toilets needed improvement, he said they might just need \u201ca real deep clean\u201d.<\/p>\n
Franke, a backpacker from the Netherlands said the toilets were \u201cnot the best I have seen but not the worst\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said they needed an \u201cupgrade\u201d, but hoped the character of the \u201ccute\u201d, whare-shaped structure would remain.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least it is different,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe design is cool. Better than just a boring metal box.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in the UK for eight years.<\/p>\n
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local Democracy Reporting found the building looked generally worn, with numerous areas of cracked paint, holes in windows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[115033,16489,74,1558,13990,1972,30701,5205,16764,5200,3592,31181,5365,3025,111,43,139,69,1118,90,2171,10903,104095,1327,38715,14040,10041,1177,29889,114016,17489,68113,6123],"class_list":["post-180928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-12k","tag-admits","tag-after","tag-been","tag-below","tag-block","tag-complaints","tag-council","tag-embarrassment","tag-facilities","tag-fall","tag-labelled","tag-lakes","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-on","tag-plans","tag-popular","tag-revamp","tag-rotorua","tag-rotoruas","tag-spend","tag-spots","tag-standard","tag-toilet","tag-toilets","tag-tourist","tag-whakarewarewa","tag-while"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}