Elisabeth Easther meets Doug Hudson, Fullers Group board member and former CEO.
My dad started his first bus company in the King Country when he was 21, so I started out in Owhango. Then, in the 1960s he bought a bus and charter company that ran out of Avondale, which grew into Fourways Tours. So my involvement in tourism started way back when I was at school. I used to work on weekend ski tours down to Ruapehu, trying to teach 40 people how to ski in a weekend.
About the same time, in the late 70s, Dad bought his first yacht, so we spent a lot of time sailing round the Hauraki Gulf, but a lot of our holidays were actually based around Dad's work. Because he also owned a camping ground in the Bay of Islands, looking after holidaymakers was a big part of our school holidays. Whether we were cleaning buses in the weekends, or going away to the camping ground, we could be doing everything from kayaking upriver to Haruru Falls or picking up rubbish to take to the tip.
I also did a lot of skiing and, in my early 20s, I'd go off with friends, cruising the South Island in campervans. One of the best experiences ever was heli-skiing in the Mt Cook area. But it was so expensive at the time, $150 for a day's heli-skiing — that sounds so affordable now.
Probably the most dangerous thing that ever happened, I was mountain biking round the back of Ohakune. We were riding along the main trunk, on an established cycling track that criss-crosses the railway line. But we didn't realise the trains through that section were electrified and, without looking, I turned to cross the railway line, but my wheels stopped and I was stuck, straddling the track. I heard this almighty blast and I turned and there was a train right there. I threw myself and my bike off the track, leaving my mate on the other side, and the train trundled through. We looked at each other, as white as ghosts. That's the scariest thing that's ever happened to me.
