Obituary: Dorothy Mihinui

Whakarewarewa guide Bubbles Mihinui liked to treat every tourist as a VIP.

* Dorothy ("Bubbles") Mihinui, DCNZM, MBE, Te Arawa kuia and Whakarewarewa guide. Died aged 87.

Generations of visitors to the famous Whakarewarewa thermal tourism attractions found Dorothy Huhana (Bubbles) Mihinui a guide of charm and confidence.

Little wonder: The Te Arawa kuia, who died suddenly at her Rotorua home this week, was steeped from a young age in Maori knowledge and in the best way to treat visitors.

Just before she retired in 1985 (after a mere 46 years of taking people around the thermal reserve) she recalled first accompanying tour parties as a toddler.

Her great-aunts took her through Whaka, delighting tourists by speaking to her in Maori as they explained the geysers and mud pools and the geothermal history of the area.

Mrs Mihinui never knew whether the nickname Bubbles, given to her in infancy by her mother, had something to do with thermal activity. More likely it was simply that, in the times around her birth in 1919, it was a quite popular affectionate pet name, not infrequently substituted for a given name.

The Destination Rotorua website says Mrs Mihinui became an apprentice guide in 1936 and was appointed a guide for the then Government Tourist Bureau two years later.

She recalled that senior guides would walk slowly behind the learners correcting when necessary. "Make sure you treat people how you'd like to be treated" and "Don't talk down to people" were rules instilled by mentors such as Bella Papakura.

Mrs Mihinui told the Herald on her retirement that acting as a guide around the village in which she grew up had been her life.

"If I had to do it again, I would not change at all," she said.

She liked to treat every tourist as a VIP. "Everybody's important," she said. "Sure I have had dignitaries, but I respected the position, because that was often all I knew about them. There is no such thing as a stranger to a Maori; they are all visitors."

Sometimes she could not bring herself to ask for a fee. "I thought, you cannot ask your friends to pay you. I love the outdoors and being out with people."

In late 1984 she was chief guide and also public relations officer at the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute adjoining Whakarewarewa and she had just had news of her MBE for services to the community.

That was not just for her Whakarewarewa work. Despite having a family of six she was for many years involved with the Maori Women's Health League, the Red Cross and Zonta club.

Mrs Mihinui also spent much of her life sharing her love of Maori arts and culture and was always involved in training and judging poi and other skills at which she was an expert.

She said that without her late husband, Nikora Whakapu (Tete), she would not have been able to undertake 99 per cent of her community work.

In 2000, Mrs Mihinui took on the Government by filing a Waitangi Tribunal claim through the Maori Council forcing it to join tobacco companies defending a High Court action.

She said the health of Maori had been damaged by the Government's failure to warn of the dangers of smoking.

In 2002, she was made a Distinguished Companion of the NZ Order of Merit, the equivalent of a dame.

Prime Minister Helen Clark described her as a towering figure in the Arawa tribe who made a considerable contribution to tourism in the area.

A tangi was held at Mrs Mihinui's home marae of Te Pakira at Whakarewarewa followed by burial yesterday at Kauae Cemetery in Ngongotaha.

She is survived by five children and many mokopuna.