EdLines: Give'em a taste of NZ

Worldwide exposure for Northland is one thing, but let's make it the right kind of exposure.
I happened across Extreme Fishing with Robson Green on Sky TV this week.
I'd normally flick on past, but I recognised our beautiful region's landscape.
I was also drawn in by Green's mangled pronunciation of Maori words and place names.
A Geordie, Green's pronunciation of hapuka was, well, interesting. Rather than pronounce short and terse vowels, ha-pu-ka came out haaaar-poo-car. He committed similar pronun-ciation offences in enunciating why-tangy and hop-who-arty.
Why, you ask, was he trying to say Hopoate?
Well, Green told a worldwide TV audience that Hopoate was a New Zealand rugby player who sticks his finger in inappropriate places. As he made the mix-up, a Northlander sat next to Green nodding his head in agreement.
The show is called Extreme Fishing with Robson Green, and Green's website says he tackles "some of the world's wildest marine life" "with some of the world's most daring fishermen and women".
During the show, he dived for mussels in 3m of water, after he was paddled to the rocks on a Maori waka, fished from the back of a luxury launch for sharks, and kite fished for what turned out to be one gurnard and three kahawai.
The kite fishing was hilarious - Green was demonstrably unimpressed with the mode of fishing which reaped just one gurnard after several hours of setting and retrieving a long line via a kite. Until three kahawai happened across the longline.
Green was beside himself with joy.
"This is what we came for," he excitedly proclaimed to the camera, "the New Zealand sea salmon or carhuh-whyyyyy!"
Green and the pleasant South African Kiwi agreed carhuh-whyyyyy were superb eating.
In the background, I'm sure I saw a 10-year-old walking past, taking a large kahawai home for fish cakes and the cat after 20 minutes fishing off the rocks.
It was entertaining though - Green knows when not to take the proverbial.
He emerged from a Maori welcome visibly moved by a young boy's mihi, although he did give his audience the impression that if you head down to the dairy in Northland, every olive-skinned person along the way will want to approach and rub noses.
There was a quant colonialism to Green's portrayal of Northland, which it seems we are prepared to tolerate if it means it attracts visitors.
Let's hope though, that when they get here, visitors enjoy an authentic experience. Oh yes, and that someone tells our tourists that Hopoate is an Aussie rugby league player.