Newsmaker: Alyssa Bennett

Newsmaker: Alyssa Bennett

This week's Newsmaker is Alyssa Bennett, who recently landed her dream job as team leader for Rotorua's new Peterpans Adventure Travel agency.

Tell us a bit about yourself?

I'm 26 years old and the mother of two daughters, aged 5 and 6, who are attending Rotorua Primary School. I am tuturu (staunch) to St Faiths and I am also a part of the Ratana Church. My birth date being the same as T.W. Ratana, I have spent countless years celebrating his birthday over my own.

I've lived in so many places in my lifetime. When I turned 4 my mother and I moved to Queensland where I learned English. My first dialect being Australian, hence my accent has never really left me. In 1996, my mother and I moved back to Auckland and later to Taumarunui where we lived in units on the "main trunk line'. I can still feel the unit shaking every morning between 2am and 3am.

We lived with a marae to our hip, the urupa (cemetery) in our front yard and the Waikato across the road. When I was 11, we moved to Rotorua, my mother and I, to be with my father and my Nanny Oha. As a teenager, I fell through the cracks of the system, sometimes being in the wrong crowd. It wasn't until I was 19 when I met my husband and we had our first daughter did I really want to change. The reason? I loved my newborn pepi (baby) so much. We decided to move to Melbourne and had another daughter 13 months later, Jaedyn-Skye.

When Jaedyn was 6 months old I felt ready to step back into the work force. But I had to sit and think what exactly I wanted to do. I loved swimming, so I became a swim coach but after a few months of that, I knew five hours in the swimming pool each day wasn't what I wanted to do. I needed to find a career. So I thought about studying to be an accountant. I thought I better try it on the ground before I sacrificed three years of study, so I got a job in accounting and found it wasn't for me.

Then I thought 'I would like to travel', but I never have. I applied for a job with Flight Centre and realised it was exactly what I wanted to do. I worked my butt off, completed my tourism qualifications and continued to travel. For a time I worked from home as an independent mobile agent but things seemed to be pushing us towards home. We realised it was now or never, gave away everything we owned and flew back to New Zealand with a suitcase each.

What are your hopes for Peterpans Rotorua?

I hope Peterpans will grow into a recognised brand as it is in Australia. However, Rotorua is different as our demographic is not just backpackers which is great.

Our market is all international travellers, however I would love to be able to cater to local travel needs as well. We specialise in Australia, Fiji and New Zealand, whereby my passion is international travel. So this will be introduced in due time for sure.

What are your thoughts about Rotorua's travel industry?

There are so many tourists coming through our city every day. However, it is my goal to educate our 22 Australia and New Zealand stores that Rotorua is a stop over city, not a transit one.

People should stay a minimum of three nights as opposed to 1.85, which should be illegal. Rotorua is such a beautiful place.

How are you enjoying being back in Rotorua?

There is no place like home.

Tell us three things about yourself most people would not know?

I am opening a Sunday School at St Faiths Church on March 15. On my days off I sing at fundraisers and other events. My mother continues to be my rock.