April and May Events @ The Portage Resort Hotel

April 6th, 2011

Greeting Friends Of The Portage

Summer is drawing to a close but there is still plenty happening at the Portage!

Over the next couple of months we have some fun events happening and we look

forward to seeing you at at one of them. Here are some dates for your diary.

APRIL:

QUIZ NIGHT STARTS 1ST APRIL

STEAK SPECIAL FIRST WEEK – $20 PER PERSON, 7PM IN THE FUNCTION ROOM.

Quiz night will be continuing over the next few months, a list of dates will

be available at the shop.

EASTER SATURDAY 23RD APRIL

Market Day on the games court run by Waitaria Bay school, with a sausage

sizzle.

Music at the Snapper with Midge Meclery from 11.00am

Start of the R.P.B.B.C fishing Competition

EASTER SUNDAY 24TH APRIL – COME JOIN US FOR A FAMILY DAY OUT WITH SOME

EASTER FUN FROM 11AM

Easter Egg Hunt, Egg Decorating Competition, Face Painting, Games and

Prizes. not forgetting the Easter Bunny. $15 Family BBQ and Live Music

5.30pm Final Weigh In for the R.P.B.B.C Fishing Compettion at the Snapper

Cafe, followed by a BBQ Buffet in the Function Room.

SATURDAY 30TH APRIL – SEAFOOD AND SAUVIGNON LONG LUNCH

IF YOU MISSED IT LAST YEAR YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS OUT THIS YEAR

Savor the taste of Marlborough seafood. Come and Enjoy an Alfresco Italian

Style Lunch at a long table gazing over the Kenepuru Sound, EATING GREAT

FOOD, DRINKING GREAT WINE whilst listening to some relaxing LIVE MUSIC.

Starts 12noon $49 per person.

MAY:

SUNDAY 1ST MAY – MOTHERS DAY

A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO THANK YOUR MUM

Let your mum know how much you Care and Treat her to a delicious 3 course

lunch in our Restaurant for only $35. We will even give her a gift of

homemade Chocolate

GAMES AND MOVIE NIGHT

Now we have an additional night of fun, with a GAMES NIGHTon Friday April

14th, we launch with poker and darts and card games. Plus a STEAK SPECIAL at

$20 per person

And…

Keep an eye out for our next newsletter with what is happening over June and

July, making sure to write the 4TH OF JUNE in your diary for the QUEEN

CHARLOTTES BIRTHDAY BASH,  when we will be raising as much money as we can

for the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal. Last year we managed to raise over

$5000 for the emergency centre.

Finally…

Make sure to check out our WEBSITE to take advantage of our End Of Summer Special.

Just $185 for a sea view hillside room and breakfast for two.  Also, please like us on FACEBOOK

follow us on TWITTER and “check in” on FOURSQUARE to keep updated on all of the latest deals and events

@ The Portage Resort Hotel

With warmest regards,

Francis Kulaga and the Portage Resort Hotel staff

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News and Events @ The Portage Resort Hotel 25/03/2011

March 25th, 2011

Greetings readers!

It’s another wonderful crisp Autumn morning here in the Marlborough Sounds and we have quite a few updates and events to let you know about!

First off:

We recently held a charity raffle for the Red Cross CHCH Earthquake Appeal at the 2011 Havelock Mussel Festival!  Chris and I had a great time and managed to raise nearly $600 for the Red Cross and CHCH!  The three raffle winners have been notified and their prizes have been sent out.  Thank you to everyone who donated their money for this effort.  Enjoy your prizes, winners!

Chris At Mussel Fest

Chris @ The Havelock Mussel Fest

Secondly:

We have been featured on the New Zealand is open campaign on the  100% Pure New Zealand facebook campaign.  See our picture below, and please visit their facebook page to see the other neat photos!

Portage Open

The Portage Resort Hotel Is Open

Thirdly:

We have a lot of exciting events coming up at The Portage Resort Hotel in April.  Local Winter activities for the local community will be starting up in April.  This year we will be hosting film nights, pub quiz nights, and pub games nights!  Additionally we are having a very special Easter celebration this year.  The beautiful flyer designed by Kaye has just been circulated in Picton and will be popping up in other regional towns soon!  We are also having our annual Seafood and Sauvignon Long Lunch at the end of the month.  Finally, we will be celebrating Mother’s Day in style here at The Portage Resort Hotel with a very special lunch menu.

Keep yourself informed about all of the happenings here @ The Portage Resort Hotel by following us on Twitter, friending us on Facebook and signing up for our recently relaunched newsletter.

Thanks for reading and have a MAGIC weekend!

The Portage Resort Hotel Staff.

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Upcoming events and activities at The Portage

March 11th, 2011

Greetings readers!

Today was a beautiful day out here on the sounds and we hear that this weekends weather is going to be even more brilliant!

We have some amazing things happening out here in the Marlborough Sounds and we just wanted to share them with you here!

1.  Come and join the Portage Resort Hotel @ the 2011 Havelock Mussel Festival next Saturday!  Christopher Evans, the operations manager, and Myself will be there all day raising money for CHCH earthquake relief through the Red Cross!  For a minimum donation of just $5 you can be entered into our special Portage raffle with many wonderful prizes to be won!  For more information please see our Twitter or Facebook pages!

2.  In collaboration with several other Marlborough Sounds businesses operating in Picton, Kenepuru sound, and Queen Charlotte Sounds we will be launching a very special auction on Trade Me within the next 10 days.  It’s a bit top secret at the moment but I can guarantee you that it will definitely be worth placing a bid on!

3.  On April 30th we are having our second annual Seafood & Sauvignon Long Lunch here at the Portage.  More details will be released soon but you can expect a long afternoon full of seafood, wine, and (hopefully) glorious sunshine!  As always for more information just keep your eyes on this blog or on our Twitter, Facebook, and Four Square pages.

Speaking of FourSquare have you seen it or used it yet?  It’s a relative technology but it launched before ‘Facebook Places’  It basically enables you to virtually “check in” when you visit your favorite local businesses and in turn these local businesses often offer special deals for the people who have the most check ins (Mayors).  It’s a great little website/program and a very fun way of sharing your favorite places and locations with friends.  Check it out!

Well that’s it for this weeks blog.  Check back soon and often as their are many more exicting events happening at the Portage Resort Hotel this Autumn and Winter.

Cheers!

Francis Kulaga and the Portage Resort Hotel staff

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The Portage Resort Hotel and GRABONE

March 4th, 2011

Hey there readers!

It’s a wet, windy, and wild Friday out here in the Marlborough Sounds.  I almost blew off of the Cougar Line boat when we landed here at Torea Bay across from Kenepuru sound this morning.  Hopefully our friends and family in Picton, Havelock, Blenheim, and Nelson will stay dry today.  The weatherman is saying that it is going to be a gorgeous afternoon like Wednesday so let’s hope that is true!

We have some exciting news here @ The Portage Resort Hotel.  Next week we will be launching a very special deal through GRABONE in their Nelson-Marlborough special deals section.  This deal will be AMAZING *but* I can’t tell you about it until it launches next week!  So….I recommend that all of our readers go and sign on to grab one right now!  It’s a pretty amazing little company with a pretty amazing little website that enables Kiwis to snag wonderful discounts and deals in cities and towns all across New Zealand.  Check it out!

In other news;  We have two other very special events coming up within the next two weeks, so needless to say it is a very exciting March for us here at the hotel!  I’ll write more about those two events on Monday.

For now, have a great weekend, stay dry, and checkout Grabone so you can get our special deal e-mailed straight to you next week!,

Francis Kulaga and the entire Portage staff

PS:  If you are not following us on twitter, or liking us on facebook yet, why not!?



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News Update: 02/24/2011 – Travelzoo for AUS and NZ and Newsletter!

February 24th, 2011

Greetings readers!

It’s a beautiful day out here in between Queen Charlotte and Kenepuru sound with lots of walkers on the Queen Charlotte Track and lots of boats down by Torea Bay looking for Dolphins!

We have two very important updates today.

Firstly, we have just launched two very special offers on the Travelzoo Top 20.  You can find more information online here http://tinyurl.com/4g2lurx These great offers make it affordable for anyone to get away for the weekend and come visit us in the Marlborough sounds!  If you’re lucky you may even see some of these guys!  Sometimes we see quite a few of them when we come over in the AM from Picton on the Cougar Line staff boat!

Dolphin Pod

Secondly.  We will be sending out a newsletter tomorrow with information on our new community involvement and Social Networks called “Portage Friends”.  This means that there will be more fun things happening at The Portage and more exclusive deals and special offers for you guys!  We want to get the local Marlborough and Sounds communities together and build on the amazing things that we have going on over here at the Portage Resort Hotel.

I almost forgot!  Contact Cougar Line in Picton to book our special Eat…Play…Love package.  Just $58 gets you a return boat transfer from Picton to the Portage on Cougar Lines as well as some tasty treats, some scrumptious wines, or some good old family fun.  Call the Cougar Line office for more info!

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Francis Kulaga and everyone on the Portage Resort Hotel team!

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6.3 Magnitude Earthquake with 5 KM of depth hits CHCH.

February 22nd, 2011

This is just a quick update to say that all of us here at the Portage Resort Hotel have the people of CHCH in our thoughts.  We sincerely hope that everyone is safe and that Christchurch will eventually be able to fully rebuild.

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Weekly Managers Post – Christopher Evans – Operations Manager

February 16th, 2011

I asked Christoper Evans our operations manager to help me write a post for the blog this week and he sen me the following anecdote.

“I did get a poem/limerick written about me by one of the guests from Saturday night in Te Weka.  Table 4 – Alan Marett – (Starfleet acct #80964)

The hotelier, Chris, here at Portage

had ideas to ease water shortage

“We’ll jet straight ahead

if we drink wine instead,

so the restaurant won’t charge any corkage!”

I thought it was quite cute and had thought to put it up on the blog would be a good idea.

In other news

We have just been joined by Antony Alderson, as Asst. F&B Manager, here at the Hotel.

Happy Wednesday! and stay tuned for more news straight from the horses mouth.

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Weekly Managers Post – 07.02.2011

February 7th, 2011

07.02.2011

At the Portage Resort we recognise the importance of being a part of our local community, particularly when there are less than a thousand people in an area of deep bays and hills.  We are active in the residents association, supporting them in securing a new wharf for Portage Bay to be built this winter.  Dain Simpson, one of the owners, is also leading a campaign to remove wilding pines, which threaten our native vegetation, while our staff participate in a ‘pull-a-pine’ competition to catch the wild pines when they are small.

Our shop runs a membership card for residents, we run community evenings and quiz nights and sponsor the local fishing competition.  Next week we will host our local fire party team of four (and their families)for dinner to celebrate their win in a New Zealand-wide competition for rural fire fighting teams for the third time.

These are just a few of the ways that the Portage Hotel Resort gets involved with the local Kenepuru sound community.

How are you involved?

Winning

This was the winning fish from the last fishing competition!



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Come stay with us @ THE PORTAGE RESORT HOTEL and walk the Queen Charlotte Track!

February 2nd, 2011

Queen Charlotte Track

Native Bush on the QCT

02.02.2011

Exploring the Queen Charlotte Track

Many of our guests are staying at the Portage Resort Hotel while hiking the beautiful Queen Charlotte Track from Ship Cove to Anakiwa.  If you are not one of them you definitely have to explore at least a part of this beautiful track while staying with us.  It’s very much worth the effort.

Water taxi companies are making your walking experience very easy and comfortable as they allow your luggage to be transferred each day.  So if you are walking the whole 71 kilometres you can fully enjoy the hike day by day without carrying a heavy backpack with you all the time.

We can highly recommend each section of the track but I especially enjoyed the first 15kms from Ship Cove to Endeavour Inlet.  This can be easily done from Portage as a day trip: a water taxi picked me up at 8am and brought me comfortably to Ship Cove.  Enjoy a tea or coffee on board and look out for dolphins!  From the boat you get your first taste of what is awaiting you on the track:  Amazing water views, beautiful inlets, and native bush and wildlife. At Ship Cove you can learn about Captain James Cook, who spent 170 days at this anchorage in the 1770’s!  Don’t miss the monument and the information panels.  The first uphill part of the Queen Charlotte track is rewarded with stunning views of Motuara Island and the Outer Queen Charlotte Sound from the first lookout.  On your further way to Resolution Bay and continuing to Endeavour Inlet you find stunning views, contrasting landscape with beech forest, original native bush, huge ferns, nikau palms, flavoursome manuka, wide beaches for a lunch break, crystal clear streams, maybe some friendly wild goats and of course curious and always hungry Wekas.  Don’t forget to listen to the melodic birds while you’re on your way.  When doing a day walk you can be picked up by a water taxi from the Furneaux Lodge Jetty at 3pm and you will be back with us @ THE PORTAGE RESORT HOTEL at around 4.30pm. On the boat ride back don’t fall asleep as you’ll probably get the chance to spot some seals or dolphins!

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Welcome to THE PORTAGE RESORT HOTEL blog!

February 2nd, 2011

02.02.2011

Today we are rolling out our new Portage Resort Hotel Blog in which we will keep you regularly updated on all news, future events and projects in and around the Portage Resort Hotel in the magic Marlborough Sounds.  In addition we would like to share with you our personal Portage and Marlborough Sounds experiences, introduce you to some interesting people, give you some insider information, and … simply let YOU be a part of it.

Marlborough Sounds

The beautiful Marlborough Sounds

As the only 4 star rated Qualmark hotel in Marlborough we are currently waiting for our Qualmark environmental rating.  Over the last 9 years we have implemented a number of effective environmental practices (see our homepage “About us -> environment” for more details if you are interested).  At this point we can already reveal that we are nominated for a Qualmark Enviro-Silver and that we are even recommended for a Qualmark Enviro-Gold rating!

While we are enjoying a great summer with warm days and a lot of sunshine (you should see the deep turquoise water of the Kenepuru Sound with this weather – amazing!) We welcome YOU to come and experience the magic with us here at The Portage Resort Hotel.

Kenepuru Sound in the summertime!

Thank you for reading and we look forward to bringing you some interesting blog posts to celebrate the 2011 summer season!

Warm regards,

THE PORTAGE RESORT HOTEL team

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