Auckland is entertaining another wave pool concept to attract some of the area’s 1.6 million residents and traveling adventure seekers. The surf park is a good bet as Kiwi tourism both domestic and international accounts for nearly $41 billion annually.

This latest project is spearheaded by industry heavy-hitters Aventuur, whose primary business is to develop integrated real estate developments that include a surf park as the central element of the ecosystem.

To get to this point Aventuur partner Andrew Ross, who headed up Urbnsurf in Melbourne, and his current partners Richard Duff and Nicholas Edelman purchased the rights to Wavegarden for New Zealand.

“Aventuur has acquired the exclusive rights to Wavegarden wave generating tech for New Zealand,” Ross said in a statement. “We have formally committed to delivering a world-class surf park development in Auckland over the next few years.”

Aventuur is looking for the right location to build the wave pool and that could take a couple of years. Once the site is secured, the company’s financial muscle can see the surf park completed in just 12-to-18 months.

Auckland previously entertained a notion from upstart wavemakers SwellPlanet. The multi-million dollar project hoped to see wave pool pioneer Dr. Kerry Black’s decades-long vision come to life.

The next step in that particular project as reported in March 2020, was for developers to raise the $15 million necessary to see the surf park to completion.

This whirlwind Aventuur/Wavegarden Cove announcement unfurled at a Red Bull-sponsored event with perennial Kiwi pro Paige Hareb in attendance.

“We couldn’t be more stoked about this news,” Hareb told Stuff New Zealand. “The Wavegarden surf parks in Bristol and Melbourne have blown us away with the quality of waves. But South Korea opened earlier this month and has raised the bar even higher.”