The Trusts Arena — Attraction in Henderson-Massey

My husband and I attended Japan Day 2024 yesterday afternoon, 25/2/2024.

Parking there was a huge problem on that day as one of the public car parks was padlocked with two security officers safeguarded and redirected cars to park somewhere else. Another car park was only designated for event organisers and stall hirers and mobility license holders.

Upon arrival of The Trust Arena, we entered the venue from the entrance “General Entry”. There were lots of people eating their yummy Japanese food at the entrance which showed that there would be even more people attending the event.

When we entered the arena, we saw huge amount of people, both local residents and tourists were all queuing up for complimentary gifts and lining up in front of different food stalls for their meals. We were so glad that we were given some lovely Japanese souvenirs after filling in a questionnaire about travelling to Japan.

As the ventilation system at the arena was very poor, the smoke and exhaust fumes emitted from the cooking of some food inside the arena really made us suffocated. Moreover, there were no air conditioning systems in the whole arena which really made everyone in the arena sweat like a dog in the middle of summer here at Auckland.

Apart from poor ventilation and lack of air conditioning system, we still recommend you to attend Japan...

I took my family there for the cook Island show case. The following are the letdowns from our experience. *Carpark - no parking available for the general public, we were manage to find a parking near the netball court, 5 minutes walk with a 8month old baby.

Entrance - only 3 main doors were in use for exit and entry during the show, not enough if the whole venue is going to emergency evacuation.

*Bag search and conditions of entry - Security confiscated all our drinks include the baby snacks. Apparently, the organisers and the venue agreed for all these to be allowed inside but it was never pass it on to the gate staff 👎. It was allowed after I contact the organisers and some people came back to claim their drinks.

*Security - (red badge) were a bit rough, no welcome/customer service, they just stand there and said open "your bag "🤦.

*Main foyer - a very small place for 1500 guests to move around include the expo as well. You come out of the toilet and everyone is looking at you. Not much privacy there.

*Main Arena - please invest into some comfortable seats for the seating blocks (grandstand) get sore bum if you seat for a long time.

Overall - we bought tickets for both days we didn't bother going on the second day due to the...

Do not visit this place. They promote discrimination and segregation which is not the New Zealand way.

I have just been to the Trusts Arena to farewell my close friend Inga Tuigamala. I am also a close friend of the Tuigamala family. I was denied entry as I do not have a vaccine pass. I am disgusted that the trusts arena have decided that having a vaccine pass is more important than me seeing my friend for 5 minutes to say goodbye. You have no idea how hurt I am over this and I am disgusted. You have no heart and do not care because you are just following the lies of the ministry of health and the New Zealand Government. I am not a danger to anyone and I am not another conspiracy theorist like you may think. This is not being kind like Jacinda Ardern our PM spoke about in 2020 and as you promote discrimination and segregation I will be telling everyone to no longer visit your venue. I don't want to hear a blah blah blah reply from you about following Government mandates or a pretend business response apology. Mandates are not legal therefore not law. This has nothing to do with health or keeping people safe. I am sick of the segregation and division in this country and by doing what you are doing you are a part of...