NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business

<i>Jacqueline Smith:</i> Fair winds for young man with a dream

NZ Herald
4 Sep, 2008 03:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

William Goodfellow's yachts offers ordinary people the chance to share a multimillionaire experience. Photo / Richard Robinson

William Goodfellow's yachts offers ordinary people the chance to share a multimillionaire experience. Photo / Richard Robinson

KEY POINTS:

When 23-year-old William Goodfellow said he wanted to take tourists sailing on old Team New Zealand boats to watch the America's Cup, he got some sideways glances.

He was talking about offering Joe Bloggs the kind of experience usually reserved for multimillionaires.

Nine years on, Goodfellow's company
Explore NZ is giving tourists once-in-a-lifetime experiences and has a strong hold on its market.

Goodfellow, a born and bred Aucklander, spent much of his childhood sailing around the Bay of Islands and racing on the Hauraki Gulf.

He was working for a tourism company in the Bay of Islands when New Zealand won the cup in 1995 and knew he wanted to be in Auckland when the country hosted the event in 2000.

Goodfellow and his business partner, a boatbuilder, quickly secured a contract for corporate viewing of the cup which allowed them to buy a charter boat from Hong Kong in time for the event's start in 1999.

But Goodfellow had seen that ex-America's Cup yacht NZL40 was available, and he decided he wanted to take people sailing on it.

Sail NZ was the first venture on Explore NZ's list of marine tourism experiences. A flood of tourists to Auckland's Viaduct during the Cup made for plenty of chartering competition but no one was offering anything quite like sailing on an actual America's Cup yacht, Goodfellow says.

"It's usually the sort of experience that the billionaire syndicate and their professional racing crew get. We've made it possible for anyone of any sailing ability to see what it's like to sail on one of the grand prix sailing machines."

There was plenty of money floating around the Viaduct during cup season and the company quickly turned a profit.

"It's very unusual to have a start-up business with the cashflow that we had but we were phenomenally lucky with the timing," Goodfellow says.

He says he had not counted on the Cup remaining in Auckland and was already looking to push into other tourism ventures, so it was a bonus when New Zealand defended the title and the tourists returned in 2002.

In the interim he added another Team New Zealand yacht to the fleet and started offering racing for corporate events and team-building activities.

When the Swiss seized the Cup in 2003, Goodfellow moved Explore NZ to the Bay of Islands, bought a catamaran and started offering day sailing.

Soon after he purchased Dolphin Discoveries, a well-established business specialising in eco-cruises and swimming with dolphins.

In 2005 Explore NZ added Auckland business Whale and Dolphin Safari to the group, and last year took over the Pride of Auckland vessel, which offers more sedate sailing on the Hauraki Gulf than the racing yachts.

This year Explore NZ launched a joint venture with Dune Rider, a company running four-wheel-drive tours from Cape Reinga down to Ninety Mile Beach.

The company now employs around 60 staff, though numbers vary seasonally.

Goodfellow makes a point of making sure he's capable of skippering all Explore NZ's fleet.

While the goal is to have a variety of enjoyable fun and complementary tourism activities under the Explore NZ umbrella, the company's main focus is to optimise the areas it is good at.

"We are careful to make sure that all of what we have is built up to its maximum - rearranging the product, introducing different trips, starting to offer the boats for different events, starting to offer Friday racing, which is quite unique. We try to use the vessels harder."

Rising fuel prices affect Explore NZ's operating costs as well as the number of people coming into the country, but Goodfellow says that won't stop the company growing its products and market share.

"It just becomes a case of doing things better and providing a product which is superior to what else is on offer."

"We've got a huge point of difference. And when you add things like the marine mammal experiences which are once in a lifetime things, it's sort of infectious," he says.

Explore NZ
Managing director: William Goodfellow - winner of young tourism professional award, PATA 2008.

Companies:

* BSail NZ - Ex-America's Cup yachts (Auckland) and On the Edge catamaran (Bay of Islands).
* Whale & Dolphin Safari (Auckland).
* Dolphin Discoveries (Bay of Islands).
* Pride of Auckland.
* Dune Rider (Ninety Mile Beach).

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Business

Property

'Looks set to make a Trade Me record' - Cardrona Hotel sale

07 Jul 09:01 PM
Premium
Media InsiderUpdated

TVNZ news in the spotlight: Independent review will check for balance, bias

07 Jul 06:02 PM
Premium
Opinion

Property Insider: Mansons begins Graham St project; free car with Westgate home; how’s Resido going?

07 Jul 05:00 PM

Audi offers a sporty spin on city driving with the A3 Sportback and S3 Sportback

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Business

'Looks set to make a Trade Me record' - Cardrona Hotel sale

'Looks set to make a Trade Me record' - Cardrona Hotel sale

07 Jul 09:01 PM

High interest in the sale of the 162-year-old hotel with a heritage-listed false front.

Premium
TVNZ news in the spotlight: Independent review will check for balance, bias

TVNZ news in the spotlight: Independent review will check for balance, bias

07 Jul 06:02 PM
Premium
Property Insider: Mansons begins Graham St project; free car with Westgate home; how’s Resido going?

Property Insider: Mansons begins Graham St project; free car with Westgate home; how’s Resido going?

07 Jul 05:00 PM
'Long-term strategy': How iwi are outpacing major NZ companies

'Long-term strategy': How iwi are outpacing major NZ companies

07 Jul 05:00 PM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP