Kia Orana all!

And if I have not yet had the pleasure of emailing you this year, may I wish you a very Happy New Year!

Just thought I would give you a quick update on what's happening at Edgewater Resort and Club Raro Resort in 2001. Lets start with Edgewater Resort.....

Refurbishment Programme at Edgewater

As you know, we have been very excited about the redecoration going on in the rooms at Edgewater. Progress is good, all beachfront rooms are finished and Garden Superior rooms are almost completed, just waiting on the next load of lovely curtains to come in from NZ to finish these off.

Next we start on the garden rooms. These have already had a lot of work done on them, with checks being made of all the garden blocks to assess what needs refurbishing and updating. Both 900 and 1000 blocks have been repainted on their exterior and are looking just great. Our timetable to have all the rooms finished before the beginning of the new sales year is looking right on schedule.

Other areas of improvement: Spaghetti House restaurant has had a make over - new curtains, table cloths and sparkling new interior and exterior paint job. Looking great. Features Italian food, pizzas, pastas, garden fresh salad bar and is just 30 seconds walk from Edgewater Resort reception.

Compendiums now in all rooms - 20 page full colour booklet featuring all the details about the resort is now available in every room in the hotel.

New Staff

Quite a few names to take note of, especially in our increasingly strong Management Team.

Sarah Marsters, formally at Tipani Tours (Rarotonga), joins us as Reservations Manager and is doing a fantastic job with her reservations team. You can reach her on stay@edgewater.co.ck

John Chetty joins us from NZ as Rooms Division Manager and is really having an impact in reorganising and improving our Front Desk operation, working with reservations staff, housekeeping departments and keeping an eye on porters and grounds departments as well. Busy job! John brings over 22 years of experience in the hospitality industry to our fair island.

Daryl Major has arrived from NZ as our new Head Chef and is really doing a great job with our kitchen and restaurant team. He brings with him a wealth of varied experience from working as chef all over the world and his first challenge is to reassess our current menus. Lots of yummy changes, as well as the regular favourites, coming up! I will keep you posted once any change is put in place.

Island Picnic Price

The Island Picnic is a full day adventure offered to Edgewater Resort and Club Raro Resort Guests every week on a Wednesday. The days starts with a transfer from the hotel to the lovely Muri Beach, around 15 minutes drive, where guests are taken by boat to one of the idyllic Motu's (baby islands) just off Muri Beach. Once there our wonderful Activities Director Charlie entertains, armed with guitar, games and lots of stories. Guests can join in with Polynesian Activities, go snorkelling or just lie on the beach and relax. BBQ lunch is included and around 3.30pm (varies) guests are transferred back to the hotel.

From today onwards we will be selling the picnic for NZ$49 per person. Please can you let you your staff know.(Slight increase is unavoidable due to electricity price increase, national wage increase, fuel cost increase and basic cost of living increase we are experiencing here).

CLUB RARO RESORT

Beachfront rooms
Good news: 15 new beachfront rooms are right on schedule to be finished by end of February, looking at being available for booking from 1 April - will keep you posted on that one! They are ideally located, looking right out over the lagoon and close to the two new sundecks which have been built to stretch right out over the sand, giving you a gorgeous view of the reef break and endless Pacific ocean.

New Management!!!
Introducing Allan Andersen, formally of Manuia Beach Resort on Rarotonga, joining us as new Manager of Club Raro Resort. Allan has been in the hospitality industry for a total of 16 years in Canada, Fiji and Samoa and is doing an excellent job at Club Raro. He is currently setting up a web site so we will let you know address details once finalised.

His partner, Sai Salatobalevu (just call her Sai! - pronounced Sigh) also joins the Club Raro team as Assistant Manager and brings a wealth of experience with her from working in Five star properties in Fiji.

Feel free to welcome them on email; holiday@clubraro.co.ck

GENERAL

Rates for 2001-2002
All the new rates for the next sales year have been faxed out, so please let me know if you have not received them.

Sales materials
I have loads of brochures, heaps of posters, thousands of wedding flyers all looking for a home, so please let me know if your stock is running low. Contact me on this email sales@edgewater.co.ck

Occupancy
The Cook Islands have been so popular recently and the trend seems to be continuing in to the new year. Just to give you a idea of availability, Sarah Marsters lets me know that we still have a few dates in February so feel free to contact Reservations on stay@edgewater.co.ck for details.

March has availability from 1/3 to 11/3 but is fully booked from 12/3 to 20/3 so please avoid these dates. April and May has availability, as does the rest of the year.

Well that's enough talk from me. Love to hear from you so keep in touch and do let me know if you need any further information.

All the best for a very successful and happy 2001!

Kind regards,

Jan Goldie
Sales & Marketing Manager
Edgewater Resort
PO Box 121
Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Ph: +682 25 435
Fax: +682 25 475