Before opening their new tourism venture Rotorua Canopy Tours directors James Fitzgerald and Andrew Blackford were given all the reasons why it would fail.
"Rotorua is too competitive, we won't get permission, have you heard of the recession, there's no market for it, it'll take two years for anyone to pay us any attention, were some of the things I was told,'' Mr Fitzgerald told The Daily Post.
Now he can happily tell the doomsayers they could not have been more wrong.
"I guess people underestimated or misunderstood what we were doing because none of those [reasons] have proven true so far.''
Since opening Rotorua Canopy Tours in August, 3000 people have taken a ride through virgin native forest near Mamaku. The almost three-hour tour takes people on a journey from forest floor to forest canopy on an incredible network of walking trails, treetop platforms, ziplines (flying foxes) and swing bridges.