Making New Zealand - Tourism

Māori became something to look at, rather than someone to run a business. The fees they could charge were controlled, and there's a sense that whatever an indigenous people did in their daily life was 'exotic'; that was something to stare at.

– Author Margaret McClure on the addition of a 'model pā' at Whakarewarewa in the early twentieth century

Guide Rangi in her time, she had a wealth of knowledge. She could take you back in time to how the old people lived. They saw her in the newspapers, they saw her on newsreels. So she was so famous they never ever wrote an address: they just wrote 'Rangi, New Zealand' because she was as famous as the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

– Kaiārahi Tours guide Justin Te Hau on the beloved Guide Rangi (Rangitīaria Dennan)

AJ and I were in France and AJ got obsessed with the Eiffel Tower and the idea of jumping off it...

– AJ Hackett Bungy co-founder Henry van Asch on the beginnings of their tourist venture

It's like...a common thread that runs through all these activities you know: it's all 'seat of your pants' and good ideas and entrepreneurs and smart thinking that's led to its success...

– David Clarke on New Zealand's success with adventure tourism, late in this documentary

So it is quite a strange thing to suddenly have built in the middle of a little town with about 2000 people and dusty streets. And 13 marble sculptures were purchased by the New Zealand Government, and they were placed around the building to make people think we were very sophisticated.

– Historian Ann Somerville on the completion of Rotorua's grand Bath House in 1908

We have to make sure what we're doing is authentic, is done with integrity, is done with mana.

– Kaiārahi Tours guide Justin Te Hau on the importance of providing an authentic tourist experience, late in this documentary

There were stories in our culture that the gods were not happy because of what we were doing...selling our souls for the dollar.

– Kaumātua John Waaka gives a Māori perspective on the destruction of the Pink and White Terraces, early in this documentary

I believe our people, my family, were the instigators of that tourism industry.

– Karen Walmsley talks about the Tarawera region, and her grandmother, guide Sophia Hinerangi, early in this documentary

Nine times out of ten it was into the unknown. Because no one knew about caves in New Zealand; caves were not something people did.

– Waitomo Caves Service Manager Robert Tahi on early explorations of the Waitomo Caves, early in this documentary