Developer offers 'holiday in a box'

WILL HINE/Southland Times

SHIP YOURSELF TO QUEENSTOWN: Peter Crowe hopes to open a holiday park made out of used shipping containers on this Bowen St site by the end of summer

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The developer of a radical Queenstown holiday park at which guests will stay in converted shipping containers hopes to open the first stage by the end of summer.

Peter Crowe received resource consent last month to build a 70-unit short-stay accommodation complex built entirely out of 12m steel shipping containers.

"Q Box" will be built on a 1.25ha Bowen St site, off Gorge Rd, which formerly had resource consent for a 118-room lodge.

Contractors have already begun clearing the sunny, elevated site of vegetation, with the shipping containers expected to arrive in January from around New Zealand and possibly Hong Kong.

Each would be fitted out with timber floors, aluminium joinery, doors, windows and patios.

The containers would be surrounded by lush, overgrown-style gardens, with a stream meandering through the property.

"We're very eco-conscious. We're just trying to work out if we can put in a little hydro-station," Mr Crowe said. "It'd be good to generate our own power."

A consultant had estimated a small hydro-station could generate 25kwph, meaning Mr Crowe could power "a couple of spa pools with a clear conscience".

He planned to attract travellers who might otherwise stay in backpacker lodges or camping grounds.

"We'll have comfortable beds and clean rooms at a modest price.

"It'll be for people who are more interested in travelling than skiting about how posh their hotel was."

Q Box would feature prominent communal areas including a large kitchen and extensive outdoor gardens, where Mr Crowe hoped travellers would mingle.

Mr Crowe is no stranger to Queenstown, having previously developed Reavers Lodge at Hamilton Rd in 2002.

He is also familiar with shipping container-living, having developed a container into a holiday house for himself in Northland.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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