Waka tour sails into world's top 50

A Bay of Islands Maori cultural tourism business has featured in the world's 50 top "Tours of a Lifetime" in National Geographic Traveller magazine.
Paihia-based Taiamai Tours offers waka rides where visitors become warrior paddlers in a 15-plus metre replica canoe.
Owner Hone Mihaka says he's "over the moon" at the high profile recognition of the business he said offers customers an experience, not a "product".
"Basically, they are paying for a seat on a waka. Everything else that happens is extra. That is when it crosses over to us sharing our lifestyle with them."
An article featuring Taiamai waka tours also appears in the same issue as Traveller magazine's "Tours of a Lifetime".
"In the top 50! This has been really good for my business," Mr Mihaka said. "In a time of financial crisis globally, international tourism wholesalers have tightened what they offer but we're still being picked up in the United Kingdom, Dutch, Germanand US markets."
Mr Mihaka has had 30 days of pre-booked tours from cruise ships this year, with many more expected from later cruises and visitors lured by the Rugby World Cup. Also in demand is the company's Waitangi Day six day and night "inside view" of New Zealand history being commemorated in its unique cultural, political and scenic setting.
It was vitally important New Zealand tourism did not homogenise Maori culture, Mr Mihaka said.
"You can get 'Maori' culture anywhere. People can buy a traditional welcome in any hotel on any corner in Rotorua, for example, but I'm Ngapuhi, and I offer my world. Only in Tai Tokerau can you get a unique, authentic Ngapuhi experience."
Mr Mihaka said his tours included a historical perspective passed down from descendants.
Another Northland operator, Alexander Kena has been involved in cultural tourism for many years, and leads the Tai Tokerau Maori Tourism Board.
Mr Alexander has Culture North, which performs powhiri, ceremonies and enactments at Waitangi Treaty Grounds and in the carved meeting house, or whare runanga.
Mr Alexander said tourism had been a tough industry to be in lately; first because of global recession, then the impact of the Canterbury earthquake. He said cultural tourism was the potential growth area and point of difference, and Northland was full of opportunities.
Those opportunities should move beyond the "kaka haka and hongi" to expand guided eco-tours, history tours and marae accommodation, Mr Alexander said.
The feted benefits of the Rugby World Cup were likely to arrive not with the event but following it, and that needed longer term planning, he said.