New Zealand Tourism Awards finalists<\/a>. <\/p>\nTongariro River Rafting entered the awards for the first time this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been told you never win the first time,\u201d business owner Garth Oakden said, but the team took home the WestPac Tourism Excellence Award for micro businesses.<\/p>\n
Oakden said the recognition reflected decades of effort since establishing the T\u016brangi-based company in 1990.<\/p>\n
The team had recently moved into a new base, making operations easier and helping the business grow. <\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Oakden said they were aiming to strengthen sustainability practices and \u201chave a crack\u201d at more awards in the future.<\/p>\n
![\"]()
Tohu Experiences, Tongariro River Rafting and Kohutapu Lodge & Tribal Tours were finalists alongside Te Puia at the 2025 New Zealand Tourism Awards. Photo \/ Brady Dyer<\/p>\n
Kohutapu Lodge & Tribal Tours owner and director Nadine ToeToe won the Auckland Airport Tourism Industry Champion Award.<\/p>\n
ToeToe said she was \u201chumbled\u201d to be recognised among \u201cthe best of the best\u201d in New Zealand tourism.<\/p>\n
Judges noted her \u201cpassion and dedication\u201d in using tourism to drive social and cultural impact. <\/p>\n
Over the past year, the Galatea-based lodge developed an online cultural health and safety module with AU Consulting, helping visitors understand tikanga M\u0101ori and expected behaviours before arriving on-site. <\/p>\n
The aim, she said, was to enhance visitor experiences while protecting and uplifting indigenous visitors and hosts.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s health and safety for everything, ToeToe said, but there had not been that guidance for cultural practices. <\/p>\n
Half the proceeds from each module support Native Nations, the company\u2019s social enterprise providing international travel opportunities for young indigenous people.<\/p>\n
ToeToe said the recognition was shared by the wider community and came just a week after Kohutapu Lodge was named one of the North Island\u2019s top experiences by Lonely Planet.<\/p>\n
Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Rebecca Ingram said the awards night highlighted the \u201cincredible passion\u201d driving the nation\u2019s tourism industry.<\/p>\n
She said operators continued to \u201cfind new ways to deliver outstanding visitor experiences, grounded in manaakitanga\u201d.<\/p>\n
New Zealand Tourism Awards 2025 \u2013 winners <\/p>\n
Air New Zealand Supreme Tourism Award <\/p>\n
Te Puia NZMACI Limited Partnership\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tourism Talent Employer of Choice Award <\/p>\n
NZME Visitor Experience Award <\/p>\n
Te Puia NZMACI Limited Partnership\u00a0<\/p>\n
Avis Budget Group Community Engagement Award <\/p>\n
Tourism Industry New Zealand Trust Tourism Collaboration Award <\/p>\n
Development West Coast\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
KiwiRail Tourism Environment Award <\/p>\n
GO Rentals Innovation Award <\/p>\n
Christchurch Adventure Park\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Toroa \u0101-uta, Toroa \u0101-tai M\u0101ori Tourism Award <\/p>\n
Kapiti Island Nature Tours\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Westpac Tourism Excellence Award (Micro Business) <\/p>\n
Tongariro River Rafting\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
ServiceIQ Tourism Excellence Award (Small-Medium Business) <\/p>\n
Willowbank Wildlife Reserve\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sudima Hotels Tourism Excellence Award (Large Business) <\/p>\n
Te Puia NZMACI Limited Partnership\u00a0<\/p>\n
Individual Awards <\/p>\n
Sir Jack Newman Outstanding Industry Leader Award <\/p>\n
Tourism Industry Aotearoa Emerging Tourism Leader Award <\/p>\n
Zac Watson \u2013 Maverick Tourism Marketing\u00a0<\/p>\n
Auckland Airport Tourism Industry Champion Award <\/p>\n
Nadine ToeToe – Kohutapu Lodge & Tribal Tours Ltd\u00a0<\/p>\n
Annabel Reid<\/a> is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, based in Rotorua. Originally from Hawke\u2019s Bay, she has a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Canterbury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Held in Wellington and hosted by Tourism Industry Aotearoa, the awards celebrated the quality and diversity of New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[836,10779,138,23552,1887,4729,7568,10136,117,111,139,69,1118,90,78744,38715,30246,8690,223,10097,810,10508,80],"class_list":["post-109697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-836","tag-awards","tag-business","tag-claimed","tag-countrys","tag-highest","tag-honour","tag-named","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-on","tag-puia","tag-rotoruas","tag-supreme","tag-te","tag-the","tag-tourism","tag-up","tag-winner","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}