paradice ice rink avondale
PARADICE A BRIEF HISTORY One day in the early 1970’s Ross Blong, a farmer with
imagination as it turned out, came home from a particularly unpleasant milking
and told his wife Nell he had enough and wanted to find something different to
do! After searching for a “people business” they decided on an ice skating rink
in Glen Innes and purchased it in 1974. After a steep learning curve they
established Paradice on the map as a great family entertainment facility in
Auckland. By 1980 they had dreams of building New Zealand’s first international
size indoor arena and had it up and running by May 1981 at our current Avondale
location at Lansford Cresent. It has been popular ever since with families and
as a “hang out” for teens and young adults. There have been several
transformations since its opening with the most recent being completed in 2011
to include a state of the art ice floor, dasher boards and refrigeration system.
By the late 1990’s the second family generation having being heavily involved in
ice sports at an international level dreamed of a second, Olympic sized indoor
ice rink, again a first for New Zealand, and it was built in 1999 at its current
location Botany Downs. The rink is still going strong today. In 2012 Paradice
owned and operated Auckland’s first temporary outdoor ice rink at Aotea Square
which has turned into an annual winter wonderland type event with the addition
of NZ’s first event ice slide in 2014. Our temporary ice rinks have expanded to
Rotorua, Wellington, and Taupo. Through the years Paradice has operated as a
family, customer focused friendly business with staff sharing their passion for
people and ice with innovation!
