- The nine-hole Smallgusta golf course and Oropi Hot Pools and Café are for sale.
- Owners Renee and Dave Agnew created the mini-course to combat seasonality and attract year-round visitors.
- The course, praised for its challenge, also boosted corporate functions and community engagement.
The first miniature golf course of its kind, dreamt up by sports fanatics to bolster their thermal resort in the Western Bay of Plenty during the off-season, has hit the market for sale.
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The nine-hole Smallgusta golf course has been a labour of love for Oropi Hot Pools and Café owners Renee and Dave Agnew.
The Pāpāmoa couple bought the 8.88ha resort on Warner Road, in Oropi, just before Covid hit.
Renee told OneRoof she had been in a corporate job and wanted to do something else while she was still young enough to do so.
The Oropi Hot Pools has been a much-loved thermal hot pool in the Western Bay of Plenty, for almost 30 years. Photo / Supplied
The onsite licensed cafe and function facility services golf and hot pool visitors, as well as the wider community. Photo / Supplied
But the mum and dad of three quickly discovered that the hot pools were seasonal. “Kiwis are sort of beach and BBQ country in summer and people don’t go to the hot pools in summer. So that was the reason for the creation of Smallgusta – to reduce the seasonality in the business,” Renee said.
Husband Dave had numerous ideas, but the one that stuck and made the most sense was building a miniature golf course on about 900sqm of the lawn.
He loved playing golf as a child so he came up with the concept to design and build a golf course mimicking a real-size one but 90% smaller. The course has a par 35 layout and, unlike mini putt, there are no curbs.
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“You play it like a golf course and it’s a lot more challenging to begin with, but it becomes a lot more dynamic. You can play it multiple times without getting bored,” Dave said. The largest hole is 52m long.
The couple spent a year planning and crafting the course, which opened at the end of 2023. “It plays fantastically once you know the rolls and the tricks of the course,” David told OneRoof.
They said the course was a hit with the local community, and had attracted the attention of professional golfers, including Phil Tataurangi, who managed to beat Dave’s personal best for the course by one shot.
“The feedback on the course itself has been really good, especially from golfers who can be quite particular about mini putt,” Dave said, noting that players were often surprised by how realistic and challenging it was.
The owners live in a four-bedroom, two-bathroom family home on the property. Photo / Supplied
Renee said the course had bolstered the business. “People that work together don’t necessarily like to put Speedos on together, With the golf course, we’ve had a lot of groups through, especially around Christmas time with end-of-year functions. It’s not only reduced the seasonality, it has tapped into the whole new corporate group market.”
A raft of other improvements and upgrades had also been carried out at the property, including the addition of a garden bar with a built-in BBQ. “As cashflow has allowed, we’ve continuously improved the place,” Renee said.
“It was very run down when we bought it. We’ve freshened it up in every way. The place looks amazing and we’ve got more goodwill.”
However, with their three children growing up, the couple have decided to sell the property, which has an RV of $2.47m, to get their weekends back.
“It’s quite an emotional decision to sell, but we have to recognise it’s a weekend-heavy business. My boy is going to leave home in a few years so we would like to spend more time with our children. We have missed a bit of weekend sports – so for us it was a family decision.”
Bayleys listing agent Riki Walls said everyone in the Bay of Plenty knew Oropi Hot Pools and the Smallgusta golf course.
His own memory of the hot pools dated back 20 years, when he took his now wife's four-year-old sister there and taught her to swim.
"I managed to convince her that she should try swimming from one side to the other, and it was only a short distance, but she did it and was so excited."
Walls said it was difficult to pinpoint the exact buyer because it was a one-of-a-kind property.
"There's nothing to compare it to. You've got a licenced cafe, the hot pools and a miniature golf course. It's the first of its kind in New Zealand - so it's unique."
He added: "We are getting enquiry from a wide range of people. We've had some tourism people, I've had some locals looking at it just to live there and run it as a business, and then we've had the odd developer look at it."
- 1B Oropi Road, in Western Bay of Plenty, is for sale, tender closing April 17
