Kia ora Kaewa Tours Friends and Whanau,

 

Wow, where has this year gone? I trust you’ve all had a great 2024.

I had great intentions of writing to you all at the beginning of this month but time certainly ran away on me!

2024 for Kaewa Tours has been an incredible year with many highlights, both business and personal. From a business perspective, the key highlight was being awarded the Electra Business & Innovation Emerging & New Business of the Year. This was an incredible accolade to achieve and something we are very proud of. The subsequent media activity was a lot of fun. You can hear the Coast Access Radio interview here.

We also had a nice write up in Business Central. Great to see three fantastic businesses that I partner with to place some advertising in my write up - Poppies Martinborough, Juno Olives Greytown and Delaney Mitsubishi Paraparaumu. Thank you for your support Poppy & Shayne, Helen & Andy and Rachel & Brent. It's been an absolute pleasure working with you this year.

But this got me thinking – yes, we are very proud of this achievement in only our 3rd year of business operation but I think the real highlight, in all honesty, is meeting and hosting our international visitors, who many are first time visitors to Aotearoa New Zealand. Seeing my own backyard through our international visitors eyes is an incredible honour. They are in awe of the beauty of the Kāpiti, Wairarapa and Wellington regions (and of course the rest of the country!). We are indeed living in a beautiful part of the world and as locals we tend to take our patch for granted.

 

Another key business highlight is the significant number of Customer Testimonials that are posted on Google and TripAdvisor pages. A huge thank you to those customers who have chosen to post up a review and share their experiences of their day out with us. I appreciate you all taking the time to do this.

If I may ask one favour to my previous customers – if you have not posted an online review of your day out with Kaewa Tours please jump onto Google or my TripAdvisor page (Google is preferred) to share your experience of your day out. Customer reviews are critical part to our business.

Speaking of reviews, here’s a real gem of a customer review from Matt in the US. I have a printed copy of this on my office wall as this is very inspiring and motivating to me:

 

To all our customers who made the very wise decision to book with Kaewa Tours during 2024, thank you. Thank you very much for booking with me for your day out. As I say in my welcome email when I receive a booking – “You’re supporting a small Kiwi business which means you made a real person smile! I appreciate your support.”

From a personal perspective, our highlight was travelling to India for the first time in September. We had 3 weeks in this fabulous country. India has left a special place in our heart. We met delightful fellow travellers and our Guides with Uniworld and onboard the Ganges Voyager II were the most fabulous and gracious hosts.

So, what’s 2024 been like in the Kaewa Tours world?

We’ve been expanding – we have new Tour Guides which is very exciting!

Throughout 2024 we have been quietly working away getting prepared for the upcoming peak season. I’m very pleased to announce that we have 4 new Tour Guides – Janice, Bryce, Dean and Simon. All going well we will have a further 2-3 Guides joining the team in 2025. Welcome Janice, Bryce, Dean and Simon – it’s great to have you on board.

I’ll be introducing the team on our Social Media platforms over the next couple of months so keep and eye out on the Kaewa Tours Instagram and Facebook pages.

 

January: We welcomed and hosted Patrick & Michele (USA), Lisa & Andrew (New Zealand), Karen, Warren, Laura & Matthew (Australia), Bina & Jayesh (USA), Vivek & Deepa, Nikita, Randy & Purnima, David, Eric, Ronan & Aruna, Sonia (USA), Karthik Piyansh & Angelina (India), Clarice & Joel, Terri & Roger (USA), Steven & Deborah (USA), Mary & Meri Lynn (USA), Katherine & Bruce (USA), Ana & Steven (USA), Marcela & Miguel (Belgium), Puay Hoon & Gerrie (Singapore), HongWen (Hong Kong), Chris (Australia), Vene and Alojzija (Slovenia), Brad (USA), Amber & Stefano (USA), Louis & Sarah (France), Catherine & John, Maria & Paul (UK), Oksana & Bob (USA), Karla & Johnny (Australia), Henry & Kelley (USA) and Margot & Frank (Australia).

February: We welcomed and hosted Terry (UK), Lisa (USA), Eva-Lotta & Lars (Sweden), Mary & family (New Zealand), Nigel & Helen (UK), Debra & Daniel (USA), Alysa & Mike (USA), Neil & Caroline (UK), Laurie & Michelle (USA), Duncan & Judy (Canada), Mary Delene & Glenn, Lenora & Art Rosen, John & Susan (USA), Minyi (Taiwan), Joanne & Jessica (Australia), Bob & Lois (USA), Susan & Ang (USA), Terry, Amie & Jackie (USA), Marie-Josée & Marc (Canada), David & Jane (USA), Val & Jim (USA), John & Patricia (USA), Cindy & Allan (Canada), Holly & Gretchen (USA), John & Janet (Australia), Trudy & Ron (USA), Pratibha & Yogendra (USA), Jeremy & Sarah (USA), Michael & Frances (USA) and Barry & Cindy (USA).

March: We welcomed and hosted Virginia & Howard, Henriette, John & Susan, Andreas, Ron & Sandra, David & Kathleen (USA), Kathy & Bernis (USA), Ellen & David (USA), Figaro Japan and Tourism NZ Japan team, David & Jennifer (USA), Mahipinder & Gurpreet (India), Celia, Nan, Jason, Brendan & Murray-Luke (Australia), Nirmal, Bhanu, Mukesh & Nishtha (USA), Douglas & Ynhi (USA), Sarah & Guillaume (France), Brandi, Stephen, Terri David & Kathy (USA), Sophie (Australia), Ingrid, Sebastianus, Marieke & Lia (Netherlands), Linda & James (USA), Helene & Jean-Yves (Canada), Mark (USA), Greg & Michelle (Australia), Anna (Australia), Celia (China) and David & Debbie (Canada).

April: We welcomed and hosted Christine & Erik (France), Subir, Susmita & Abhijit (India), Gary, Antoinette & Sharon (USA), Sandra & Bruce, Heather & Brian, Eve & Wayne (Australia), Delta Vacations Travel Agents (USA), Kari & Irma (Finland), Larry & Nancy (USA), Keith & Joyce (UK), Mark & Laurie (USA), Jean & Christine (French Polynesia), Bhanu & Chhagan (USA), Andrea, Jesse & John (USA) AND Di & Tim (New Zealand).

May: We welcomed and hosted Tomohisa & Rong (Japan), Laura & Sam (New Zealand), Maria, Aniceto, Juan & Patricia (Columbia), Jessica (USA), Kishan (USA), Kerry & Ilse (Australia), Laura & Bakous (Australia) and Gillian (New Zealand).

We exhibited at the TRENZ conference in Wellington. This was our 2nd attendance at TRENZ. TRENZ is the most significant international business-to-business travel trade event on New Zealand's tourism events calendar. We met fabulous Travel Agents from all around the world, our product presentations were very well received and as a result we now have bookings out to April 2026!

June: We welcomed and hosted Kylie, Dillon, Harrison, Shae, Carolyn, Will & Paula (New Zealand), Cecille, Lawie, Bing, Dimple & Domnina (Philippines), Ryosuke, Syunjiro & Takuya (Japan) and Deborah, Zenei, Nancy, Kimberly & Jean (USA).

July: We welcomed and hosted Christian & Jennifer (USA), Eugene (USA), Manfred (Germany) and Marilde, Maria & Maria (Portugal).

August: We welcomed and hosted Daniel & Weronika (Hong Kong), Marie, Patrice, Elise & Raphael (France), Brendan & Louise (Australia), Meng Keng (Singapore) and Jerry, Marco, Jim & Alear (New Zealand).

September: A very quiet month on the work front as we headed away to India for the majority of the month. We welcomed and hosted Alli, Ted & Eli (Australia), Harry (UK), Gabrielle & Marilyn (Australia), Lisa, Dorothy & Rodger (Australia) and Imbulana (Australia).

October: We welcomed and hosted Brenda & Robert (USA), Malcolm & Brad (Australia), Katherine & Philip (UK), Joy of Travels (New Zealand), Joan & Charlie (New Zealand), Elizabeth & Jim, April & Dotty (USA), Barbara & Steve (USA), Melisa & Randy, Nancy & Tom (USA), Victor & Michelle (USA), Amelie, Siena & Odile (France) and Angela & Trish (USA).

November: We welcomed and hosted Orla & Seamus (Ireland), Jonathan & Laurie (USA), Mabel & Andrew (USA), Rafaela and Leandro (Brazil), Martina & Len (USA), Sarah & Angela (Australia), Dean, Tammy & Angela (USA), Robert & Sharon (USA), Patrick & Corinne (France), Cheryl & Carl (USA), Betsy & Craig (USA), Kelli & Alberto (USA), Sandra (USA), Amar & Joyce (UK), Hannah & Rochelle (USA), Saud & Khadeejah (USA), Robert & Cara (USA), Francoise, Alexandre & Martin (France), Erin & Brenda (USA), Jane & David (UK), Leslie & David (USA), Verilyn & Gerald (Canada), Debbie & Jacqueline (USA) and Sahra & Patricia (Canada).

December: Up to 24 December, we welcomed and hosted Caroline, Alexandre & Martin (France), Jakob (Denmark), Liisa & Lauri (Finland), Teresa & Jarek (Australia), Ralph (UK), Maury & Nancy (USA), Leanne & Gerald (USA) and Irene & Joe (USA).

So that’s the list of my delighted customers for you. A very warm Kiwi welcome to you all.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all my fabulous partners that I work with on my tours: Greytown Honey, Olivo, Juno Olives, Schoc Chocolates, Poppies Martinborough, Moy Hall, Hamden Estate, Grava, Ngawaka, Tiwaiwaka Wines, Escarpment, Le Gra, Johner Estate,  C'est Cheese, Elemental Cider, The Roastery Kāpiti, Hey Coastie, Kāpiti Chocolate Factory, The Bond Store, Sones Sauces, Kāpiti Olives, Totara Tunnel Olives, Scorch-O-Rama, Fortune Favours, Te Aro Brewing, Kereru Brewing, Double Vision Brewing, Nga Manu Nature Reserve, Lamoon Gelato, Old St Pauls Cathedral, Southward Car Museum, Zelati.

Thank you for everything you do. Your personality and passion for your products always shines through at every visit. We salute you all.

 

Huge thanks to the following organisations that have again helped me along the way this year: WellingtonNZ, Tourism Industry Aotearoa, Tourism New Zealand, Destination Wairarapa and the Kāpiti Coast Economic Development/Tourism Team. Thank you for everything you do in helping me to be as successful as I can.