Thanks you soooo much for this wonderful experience. It was such a fantastic day with you and your family!
We really really enjoyed it.
BUT: I never thought the day would end like this.
We came to Paihia and it was pouring with rain. We couldn't find our B&B, came directly from Auckland.
I thought: Oh my god. A lost day in paradise...
But then we met you and the sun came out. Not outside but in our hearts. You really made our day!!!
I've been on a few Maori Tours before, but that was not comparable to the special experience that you offer.
The tattooed Maori guide’s ancestors defied the might of the British Empire. What sort of reception would Dan Snow get?
We stood in grass up to our knees amid dandelions that covered the hilltop. As on so many other battlefields, Nature has restored a simple beauty to terrain gouged by man’s violence. But even the wildflowers cannot disguise the trenches, bunkers and other scars in the earth.
I’m familiar with them, the telltale signs of industrial warfare. I could be standing in northern France, Ukraine or even Vietnam.
I really just wanted to say a big thank you for all your kind hospitality and looking after me so well. It was so good to meet you and have the opportunity to talk to you and the whole experience has been invaluable for my job of nurturing and ultimately growing the business. I haven’t stopped talking about my wonderful afternoon with you and your family and still have my precious flower your wife made for me at home.
Thank you once again and I hope to see you again in May when you come to the UK.
From: Tom Koppel [mailto:koppel@saltspring.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 9 December 2009 2:46 p.m.
To: Bay of Islands Waka Tours
Subject: Re: Hone and Tani Taiamai Tours
What makes your product so unique, is the depth of the experience. The root of Maori culture is not just a Waka or a Marae. It is the Mana of your Ancestors and yourself. Explaining and showing a tourist, that Mana is the root, and everything else is just the leaf, is an art in itself and you are able to convey that. A customer who takes a voyage on your Waka is taken on a voyage into the spiritual mind, Mana and world of the Maori. This is what makes you and what you offer so different and unique.
