Local Focus: 3D art and farm tours bouncing back with a new cafe opening at Heritage Farm

Lack of international tourists has affected Heritage Farm but like many other Rotorua businesses, it has changed direction slightly and will open a cafe this Friday in place of the Farmside Buffet Restaurant.

Heritage Farm is a multi-million dollar tourist attraction, and while the buffet restaurant is closed, it still offers visitors a veritable smorgasbord of activities.

But not all of it is typically found on a New Zealand farm. For example the 3D Trick Art Gallery.

It was love at first sight for Robyn Van Den Hurk when she first visited a Trick Art museum in Singapore. So in 2017, when she heard Trick Art was coming to Rotorua she was first in line for a job.

"I first saw it accidentally and it was like 'oh my gosh, this is so cool'," she said. "It just makes people smile."

The 3D Trick Art Gallery is paradise for anyone wanting to update their profile picture or pretend they've been on an incredible adventure.

The cunning 2D paintings look 3D from a particular vantage point, and when people step into the scene the camera transports them to a different world - an icy crevice, atop a waterfall, the canals of Venice or into space.

"It's all about climbing into the paintings, having fun posing, acting, being a bit silly," Van Den Hurk said.

"We had 10 artists from overseas come in and paint them because they're the top of their game, so it's all hand-painted and they took nearly six months to do all the paintings in here."

Heritage Park is running with reduced staff and reduced hours but the Farm Tours are operating again, and opening hours will be back to normal for the school holidays.

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