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How the resort works
Okawa Bay Lake Resort has, like most timeshare resorts in Australasia, a mainly "floating" system of ownership, with only 5 weeks in the Xmas-January period being "fixed".
Week 1 always begins with the first Friday in January and thus the actual date changes from year to year.
Fixed Weeks are "Fixed Bookings" and are weeks No 52 & 1 (only as pairs), 2, 3, 4. The unit occupied each year is according to strict rotation.
Floating Weeks are weeks No 5 through to 51 and are subject to booking at the office anytime during office hours. It is important to book your weeks each year, or bank them with the RCI or DAE exchanges, as they do not carry over to next year except through banking.
Booking System. Levies must be paid before bookings will be accepted. On the 1st February each year, the bookings open for the entire following year - that is 23 months ahead. When booking into the following calendar year, a part levy payment for that year is required before the booking can be accepted. Bookings are strictly on a first come first served basis. You may request a certain unit, but allocation is on a first come first served basis, and your choice may already be booked by another owner, so you may need to be flexible.
Okawa Bay Lake Resort timeshare is a lease type of ownership, not a title deed.
The Licence to Occupy, as it is called, is for a 30 year term from 2002 to 2032. At the conclusion of the lease the property reverts to the land owners, a Trust of the local Maori iwi, and the timeshare is at an end.
There is an association of timeshare owners, Okawa Rotoiti Timeshares Incorporated, which annually elects a committee of 7 members to attend to owners' interests. The Association's office is currently in Pukekohe. Annual Meetings are held in July each year at the Resort in conjunction with a dinner and social event at the hotel.
In September 2002 the management of the entire resort was leased by the Ownership Trust to Amora Hotels for a period of 30 years. Amora run the hotel operation on site, and provide front desk services, and the timeshare operation is managed by the Timeshare Owners Assn. The timeshare owners association has a direct input into the maintenance programme, and thus can ensure the standard is kept to the best possible level.
The resort is awarded the RCI Gold Crown Award, a reflection of the standard of the major refurbishment completed in 2005. There is a schedule of refurbishments planned to keep the units in top order for the life of the lease.
There is an annual maintenance levy which is $720 (incl. GST), per week owned for 2012.
As there was a large scale refurbishment finished Dec 2005, the future levy is expected to remain at a level below other comparable resorts as our major refurbishment is all done. This levy is set by the Timeshare Owners Association and is strictly controlled to a share of actual costs (non profit). A proportion of the levy goes toward the upkeep and improvement of the timeshare, along with the Maori Trust resort owners' contribution. Any surplus is held in reserve in a Trust Account.
Amora do all the day to day management and weekly cleaning of the timeshare, while the Timeshare Owners Assn controls all the levy collection and disbursements to Amora, according to the Management Contract between the two parties.
Bookings and exchange bankings are controlled by the Owners' Assn., and care is taken to ensure the allocations are done on a strictly fair basis.
The Registry of Leases is maintained by the Association, which effects changes of ownership also. The transfer fee is $470 including gst if the Association office does the documentation, or $236 if the transfer is documented by our authorised resale operation - see the page on Sales . There is no need for a solicitor, as there is no land transfer involved.
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