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When Cameron Mackinnon, of Torbay, started his mobile sauna business last year, the plan was to create a steamy healthy experience, with views of beaches on the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast.
In providing this, he managed to also raise the temperatures of local authorities.
Mackinnon is passionate about the power of sauna use, which he found transformative after breaking his neck 20 years ago.
Late last year he parked his sauna in Ōrewa Reserve carpark. He says he was aware that the local board is the controlling authority and had been emailing them for months before he parked there.
“The response from customers was very positive, as they could swim, then jump into the sauna,” he says. “People came in looking miserable and left happy.”
However, the sauna vehicle takes up around four carparks and Mackinnon was told he could not place a business operation on Ōrewa Reserve without landowner approval from the local board, and the appropriate licence.
He applied for both landowner approval and a mobile vendor licence before he built the sauna, and was declined.
“I went ahead anyway and I guess that annoyed them,” he says. “But I have a family and needed to work.”
Auckland Council offered Sauna Collective a couple of other options, but Mackinnon says they were not ideal as they were further from the shoreline.
“They were keen for me to use the reserve itself, but in winter I don’t want to rip it up, or get bogged,” he says.
Instead, he parked on Hibiscus Coast Highway near Ōrewa Beach where he immediately ran into problems with that controlling authority, Auckland Transport (AT).
“They told me I needed a mobile vendor’s licence and would get a $20,000 fine if I operated without one,” he says.
AT says the location is a high demand area, and as the sauna would occupy more than one parking space, it could not provide a permit.
Currently, Mackinnon is looking at other options, including hiring local halls but says he is being blocked.
In the meantime he started an online petition (change.org) where the public can show their support for his operation. So far he has around 550 signatures.
He will make a presentation to the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board meeting on February 27 to again put his case for landowner approval.
“I’m not angry with Council – they are just doing their job. They don’t want to set precedents and I appreciate that. That’s why the petition is a big thing, and finding a way to work together. I want to make it easy for Council, by adjusting the location, hours and seasons. Ōrewa’s overflow carpark may be an option, and Red Beach next to the surf club on weekdays only. Maybe I could operate March to start of November, when parking is less in demand, reduce my opening hours and focus on weekdays rather than weekends. I will do anything I can that allows me to operate.”
