I have a 3 bedroom place right on the lake near the start. From 10-17th.

I think one of those rooms is spoken for from a local tri buddy. I figured another local would grab the other room this spring, but if that doesn't happen you can be first in line!

People on this site said Marbella won't share this housing issue, so at least 2025 will be better. I'm still debating if I'll want to do Nice or Marbs that year though. Likely can't budget for both.

What is an Ironman WC? An exotic vacation with a race thrown in :)

Taupo is not the easiest place to stay. Even for normal races then you need to get in early, or last minute (I'll come back to this). That said, if in a bind then staying on southern side of Rotorua isn't too bad a drive. Ditto Kinloch.

When I've been heading down to support, then I've often checked the week before (it's a 2hr drive from my house, so possible as a day trip) and generally been lucky with cancellations. There are always some people that get injured etc. I accept this doesn't help calm the nerves if you are counting on a bed for a race, but it's a NZ thing. Same for any sold out event, come the week of it everyone has a mate with a mate that gets them tickets/etc. Honestly, this included Cat A tickets to the Rugby World Cup final in Auckland and rooms at the Taupo Hilton for Friday/Saturday of Ironman booked on the Friday...

Also, and leftfield, but when we came over from UK for 'normal' ironman we were over for 5 weeks and hired a campervan. Stayed at DeBretts just next to the Hilton which is on the bike course. And that worked really well. In fact raceday drove the van down to the town and that gave my wife a base for the day.

Websites to keep an eye on. Also try bookabach.co.nz and bachcare.co.nz.

It's fairly common for Airbnb hosts to only have availability 6mths in advance as that is standard in the app.
Start of June is when you'd want to be be refreshing on Airbnb.
You can keep an eye on bachcare but then there is a risk you won't get a key or blankets or other things you were supposed to.

Take a look at Kinloch. Beautiful place to set up shop and only a 15-20min drive to Taupo itself.

https://www.holidayhouses.co.nz seems to have a few places floating around for a more reasonable price.

Good to know there still is some hope!

I know the WC races are just glorified vacations…. But when costs start to approach $10-12k all in for a family of 4…. Hard to say whether a race-cation is worth that, compared to some of the other epic vacations one can go on for that kind of money.

---

___________________________________
MS: Exercise Science
Your speed matters a lot, sometimes you need to be very fast, where sometimes you need to breakdown your speed.

My suggestion is if it's a venue you want to to race, 12 months out book an airbnb regardless of whether or not you qualify. Airbnb let's you pay like half now instead of the full amount. Just make sure it's one you can cancel for 100% refund if for some reason you dont qualify.

In my case my wife and I have frequent flyer miles and we each use the premium miles cards that earn us plenty of bonus miles throughout the year. So the flights are "free" and we're paying a normal rate for the airbnb.

This is nothing new for NZ and especially not new for Taupo. It's a hotspot summer destination for a lot of Kiwis so even without the 70.3 WC it's usually booked out for the Xmas/NY period. I remember growing up that even getting a basic tent site in Taupo was next to impossible for the NY period.

Not to mention most schools will be typically finishing for the summer break around this same weekend so a good chunk of lake goers will be heading to Taupo at the same time.

Top it off with the fact that it's really only a large town/small city so the whole supply and demand thing doesn't help the cause.

Many of us have called around Airbnb and hotels listed now but not 6 months out, some ppl have got lucky most not, the town is really heavily booked and nirvana and other agencies have taken a bunch of the rooms.

I'm sorted since Nov Dec last year but that required contacting about 40 different properties to find 2 that weren't full and 1 that was renting at good prices the other had tripled the cost and had a 7 night minimum with 1 room left in a big motel.

Council lists ~1400 properties as being used for short term accommodation, so that is a fundamental problem for dealing with events that bring thousands of visitors, at a time of year that is busy anyway.
Not sure whether we'll be making ours available, depends on a few factors.

That link you provided actually has a bunch of decent options - appreciate it!

---

___________________________________
MS: Exercise Science
Your speed matters a lot, sometimes you need to be very fast, where sometimes you need to breakdown your speed.

2025 Marbella. $$$. Finland last year $$$. Taupo same. This is not a cheap sport but it's becoming more elitist every year and Ironman is not making it any easier.

If you're in a hotel, make sure everything (windows included) is locked up. I was there one year for a race and the thieves knew a lot of $$ and things were coming to town. They came in through windows in the hotel and got them opened somehow...stole a bunch of stuff. Maybe booby-trap doors and windows to make noise to alert someone. Possibly place a micro-camera in the room like a nanny cam to send video to a phone...seriously, it's happened many times. I was safe though...stayed in a B&B with some wonderful owners.

Huka Lodge seems to still be available

https://www.booking.com/...;checkout=2024-12-15


https://reservations.hukalodge.com/book/accommodations

😛 just $11,400 for 3 nights or so

I secured a place to stay very close to the event using Nirvana. I think they bought up most of the hotel rooms before the public could reserve them. Does anybody know of a transfer bus that will take passengers and a bike box from the Auckland airport to Taupo? I'd rather not rent a car.

How much per night with Nirvana?

I’d given them my email for “more information” but never heard from them.

---

___________________________________
MS: Exercise Science
Your speed matters a lot, sometimes you need to be very fast, where sometimes you need to breakdown your speed.

I did the same. Never heard a reply. A couple of days ago I just went to their website and the options available come up. Secured my hotel reservation less than 1K from the race site. Check it out.

Yes it's tough finding accommodations in Taupo in the summer. It's a 3 hour drive for me. Will turn up just in time for bike check-in, sleep in the car, do the race, and drive back.

On the plus it will be just reopened after being closed for a year for a refresh. So you may be first people in the room. Hence the discounted prices.... No really.

One other thing, it is worth reaching out to some specific places. In the past I've stayed at the Chelmswood (doens't look the flashest, but actually works well, and is really hand for the race and days prior), Hilton, and Sacred Waters. All of which I've managed to book via a phone call when there was nothing showing on the website. The other one I actually like is Wairakei Resort. Little further out, but nothing major, and other than having the most confusing room numbering/layout of any complex, is pretty good.

But then found a perfect house to rent just on the water side of Cascades and so got into a routine of booking that for Xmas training camp and for Race week a year out.

I've got a friends Mum who works in one of the hotels in Taupo, and she said that Nirvana has just booked all of their rooms that they could for those dates.

Intercity goes from Auckland international airport to Taupo. You will have to transfer and it's a 6 hour trip (normally a 3 1/2 hour by car)
I've never used them for bike transport they do say [bikes count as oversized](https://www.intercity.co.nz/...erms/oversized-items) so you'd have to check that

The normal way to get from Akl to Taupo is to fly - regional flights. That said race week will be a bit of a shitshow in terms of bikes as there's limited capacity on the Q300s especially, and even the ATR72s for bikes. The bus will be a nightmare.

Note if you do end up driving then there's a few things. 1) There is a shortage of rental cars still, so make sure you do book in advance. 2) The first bit of the drive is OK, it's about the only bit of motorway/freeway in NZ, but even then it's down to 2 lanes each way after a few KM. But then once you're off that then the road will be a lot narrower and windy than you expect. So plan for lower speed, and taking more breaks than normal. That said there are some truly amazing places to detour on teh way.

One 'solution' to both of the issues is what I did first time - campervan. Got met at the airport, had a 5 berth camper for the 2 of us, the bike went above the cab in the double bed there, and we slept in the double bed at the back of the van. Drove very car like, just needed to be a little steady in a tropical storm that was hitting the first few days.

Do you remember the company you used to rent the campervan? Thanks!

Sadly the company I used, and then again for when my parents came over after we moved here, closed down/sold out 10 years ago.

Britz, Maui and Apollo are the main ones now I think (one of those bought the company we used which was family owned with about a dozen vans).

Thanks for the referrals!