A Motueka tourism business owner and avid basketballer has scored a new position to steer the local recreation centre waka.
Rohan Haskell, who’s owned Mārahau-based R&R Kayaks for six years, has recently been appointed as new facility manager at the Motueka Recreation Centre.
He replaces Jody Maru, who had been a member of the Sport Tasman facility for around two decades and spent the past six years as its facility manager.
Rohan says he is “stoked” to now call the shots at the Old Wharf Rd centre, where he’s participated in sport since he was four-years-old.
“Sport and community stuff has always been a passion of mine and I’ve always done it in the background, but to be able to see this job come up, apply for it, and be given it was pretty humbling, and a pretty awesome opportunity,” he says.
“I’ve been doing tourism for over 20 years, and I just felt it was time to put that on the backburner a bit and move into something different because obviously in the last couple of years Covid has pretty substantially damaged tourism businesses.
“I got our business back up on its feet last year to the point where I could put someone in there to manage that for me, so it was a good opportunity to step away from it and reenergise myself in a different area.”
Rohan, who also founded the Mot Buckets basketball team in 2021, says his first move as the complex captain was whistling in more users.
“The facility is an incredible facility for a small town like Motueka to have and I feel like it’s underutilised at the moment.
He says he wants to get the spaces and places that are currently unoccupied for much of the week, seeing more use.
“Whether it be for sport, leisure, recreation stuff or young kids to elderly classes.
“The community and the recreation centre may have had a bit of a disconnect over the past few years and it would be awesome to see it back up and get back to what it has been in the past.”
Rohan says he’ll engage with local sports organisations to level the playing field.
“It’s hard for us to do all of it on our own, so we do need a bit of buy in from soccer groups, basketball groups and netball clubs and things to actually help us out,” he says.
“We obviously have to get some staff on board who are capable to do those things so we are looking into bringing on a few more staff members shortly which will help us out in that field.”
