{"id":465927,"date":"2026-06-07T21:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T21:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/465927\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T21:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T21:27:12","slug":"chateau-tongariro-minister-tama-potaka-weighs-up-lifeline-for-derelict-hotel-officials-note-strong-interest-potential-treaty-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/465927\/","title":{"rendered":"Chateau Tongariro: Minister Tama Potaka weighs up lifeline for derelict hotel, officials note strong interest, potential Treaty risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government\u2019s official response to the petition noted all options remained on the table, although this was prior to the RFP, announced the following month.<\/p>\n

The full petition included a 22-page written submission from Ruapehu District Council, which stated the Chateau had supplied about 30% of the district\u2019s commercial visitor beds at its peak.<\/p>\n

The council also cited an economic study which found the Chateau Tongariro accounted for around 10% of Ruapehu\u2019s tourism-based GDP and about 9% of its jobs.<\/p>\n

Petitioners labelled the project \u201clow-hanging fruit\u201d due to the stated benefits.<\/p>\n

In documents obtained by Newstalk ZB under the Official Information Act, the Department of Conservation noted the minister had requested the RFP test whether \u201cstrengthening and restoration is viable with a maximum lease term of 60 years and without Government funding assistance\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Department of Conservation had also been considering the possibility that no party found restoration commercially viable, although further details on that were redacted.<\/p>\n

Further in the briefing, officials said there was a possibility the terms of the RFP were \u201cnot viable for investors\u201d because of the lease term available or the cost of strengthening and restoration.<\/p>\n

The department also noted the importance of working with iwi on a viable solution and advised the minister it was \u201cengaging in good faith\u201d with Treaty partners and affected M\u0101ori organisations.<\/p>\n

The Department of Conservation met with Te Korowai o Wainui\u0101rua, Ng\u0101ti Rangi, Te Patutokotoko and Ng\u0101ti H\u0101ua in mid-February to \u201cunderstand their views\u201d on the site.<\/p>\n

Another memo sent to Potaka in late February on iwi engagement was significantly redacted but stated iwi and hap\u016b views around the Chateau were \u201crelatively aligned\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a risk that any process to select a long term leasee for the Chateau may be viewed as pre-emptive to settlement negotiations,\u201d Potaka was told.<\/p>\n

A separate memo stated iwi believed the Te Awa Tupua settlement<\/a> obligations were relevant to the site. The historic agreement granted legal personhood to the nearby Whanganui River in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future development of the Chateau will have direct and indirect impacts on the catchment of Te Awa Tupua, given the significance of the operations in the scheme of the Whakapapa Wastewater Plant,\u201d officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will offer to bring iwi leadership together to chart a path for further consideration of interests and activities in Whakapapa Village, as well as discussing wider Tongariro Park matters,\u201d they added, noting a \u201cdurable path forward\u201d would require iwi partnership.<\/p>\n

Responding to the information in the documents, Kirton said he was hoping the Government can \u201chelp join all the dots\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important we take iwi and hap\u016b along on that journey. It\u2019s obviously significant, in terms of culture from their perspective \u2013 that has to be respected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The mayor said the Chateau was \u201conly a hub of what can be put in place there\u201d and some were in favour of a \u201cvillage-type concept\u201d with further investment and new retail offerings in the area.<\/p>\n

Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament\u2019s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government\u2019s official response to the petition noted all options remained on the table, although this was prior…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17248,21816,10709,1389,86209,2245,5504,2082,6735,12469,34590,6722,111,43,139,9332,69,10711,14725,75529,6046,7192,8209,6753,18835,75528,46029,38961,810,5834,25592,5977],"class_list":["post-465927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-17248","tag-chateau","tag-concerns","tag-conservation","tag-derelict","tag-early","tag-following","tag-for","tag-hotel","tag-interest","tag-lifeline","tag-minister","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-note","tag-nz","tag-officials","tag-options","tag-potaka","tag-potential","tag-risk","tag-seismic","tag-shut","tag-strong","tag-tama","tag-tongariro","tag-treaty","tag-up","tag-weighing","tag-weighs","tag-which"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465927","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=465927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}