• Gina Todd at the Escape Hunt welcome desk.
  • Gina Todd at the Escape Hunt welcome desk.

Hunt for a fun activity this winter

Takapuna’s Escape Hunt is a local labour of love that brings fun indoors. Local Takapuna resident Gina Todd has poured her passion into this puzzling business project and it's paying off. Escape Hunt on Lake Road in Takapuna has clocked up some remarkable results on Trip Advisor: it’s number one of 'things to do in Takapuna', number one of 'fun activities and games' – with an 'excellent' rating in this category. “We’re really happy with our ratings,” says owner Gina Todd. “I feel we have done our job if customers have a great time and leave us happy and wanting to play another game.”

So what is it that has reviewers raving? Indeed, what exactly is Escape Hunt? Christine Young decided it was time to find out.

Gina is the person you’re likely to meet when you enter Escape Hunt.  After walking down a long hallway next to Perpetual Guardian Trust, you enter a lounge with subdued lighting and raised booths where you and your group (friends, work colleagues, party guests…) can wait before entering the escape room of your choice, where you spend an hour (or more or less, depending on your group’s puzzle-solving acumen) solving a range of puzzles to escape the room. For work groups, the lounge is a great space for team building, or getting together to debrief the experience. It’s also ideal for birthdays, and it’s not unknown, says Gina, for groups to hang out after their Escape Hunt experience, just catching up and enjoying complimentary tea, coffee and biscuits.

Gina and her husband David bought the Auckland Escape Hunt franchise nearly two and a half years ago. They found the premises and designed the room layout and décor, and with the help of the franchise design team, created the themed escape rooms (two “The Great Trophy Heist”, two  “Lost in the Forest”, and one nautical “Island Shipwreck”) – and launched the business.

Once up and running, Gina discovered the marketing model that had worked overseas didn’t quite fit the Takapuna market; she needed to build awareness in a way that suited the local market. To address differences in the market, Gina and David recently designed a unique outdoor escape game, “Fugitive Hunt”, to make the most of the central Takapuna location and being near the beach.

Gina has always had a passion for puzzles – as a child, she changed and designed board games, sending her efforts off to games companies. At university she did a double major in accounting and operations management – she loved the challenge of the latter – and gained a BCom (Hons). From there, she slid into an accounting role at Ernst and Young. Looking back, she says now, accounting was never her thing, and in Escape Hunt she’s really found at least part of her calling. She loves the challenge of designing puzzles and delivering outstanding service to Escape Hunt customers to ensure that everyone has a positive experience, regardless of age or puzzle solving ability.

The other part of Gina’s calling might simply be to be an entrepreneur. She’d always wanted, she says, to own her own business. Her mother provided a model when she was a child by helping Gina and her sister to discard the spent flowers from a local flower delivery business, re-wrap the good ones, and sell bunches to the neighbours.

As if she didn’t have enough on her plate refining Escape Hunt’s offering as that business has developed, last December she launched an online business, Ethical Collection, which “brings together in one place the most effective and truly natural skincare, makeup and body care products”. She also has ambitions in the future to mentor young people as they make career decisions and support them in their entrepreneurial ambitions.

Gina has thrived on working through each stage of the development of Escape Hunt in Takapuna. Her focus right now is on providing a totally service-oriented culture where the priority is to ensure that everyone who comes to Escape Hunt has a fun experience. Customer needs are paramount from the booking process, to determining the right level of room difficulty, to sensing when they want (or don’t want) clues to help them escape the room.

Escape Hunt, 09 489 4999 auckland@escapehunt.com Facebook @escapehuntakl

Open 10am-10pm seven days