Tamaki bros to expand business

Award winning Rotorua tourist operators Mike and Doug Tamaki are expanding again - this time with a venture in Manukau.

The new operation, a joint venture between the Tamaki Heritage Group and the Telstra Clear Pacific Events Centre in Manukau, will be the brothers' third. They started with Tamaki Tours in Rotorua in 1990 and in 2006 opened a similar operation in Christchurch.

The proposed new development is to be part of a multimillion-dollar art, tourism, hotel and business precinct adjacent to Manukau's events centre and is expected to be completed by early 2010.


Details remain under wraps but a whitewater kayak course has been confirmed as one of the projects and will be opened in conjunction with Olympic gold medallist Ian Ferguson.

The Tamaki brothers have said that their new project would be a continuation of an overriding story of New Zealand - Rotorua being the pre-European story, Christchurch the story of the musket wars and early Colonial encounters. The new development, Mike Tamaki said, would "most certainly be another significant chapter in our nation's history".

"The Manukau story will be significant and relevant to the Manukau people - its historical community as well as the colorful diversity expressed within its people today - not to mention being captivating for the international visitor," he said.

The Tamaki brothers opened their Christchurch venture, Tamaki Heritage Village, in April this year after four years of planning and construction on a 10ha site featuring Maori and Colonial villages. The venture employs about 100 staff and is expected to attract up to 80,000 visitors in its first year.

Doug Tamaki said the only similarity between Rotorua's Tamaki Tours and the Christchurch complex was the name.

A visit to Christchurch's Tamaki Heritage Village includes a 90-minute re-enactment of New Zealand history. Other features of the village include tram and steam train rides.

Mike Tamaki moved to Christchurch to concentrate on that side of the business while his brother remained in Rotorua.


Born in Te Awamutu and growing up in Tokoroa, the Tamaki brothers are credited with taking Maori tourism to new heights by creating their Tamaki Tours Maori village south of Rotorua in 1990, taking the cultural experience outside of the hotel hangi and concert arena.

In 2004 they set up a new visitor experience in Rotorua called the Realm of Tane before looking outside the region for new ventures.

They got involved in tourism after famously selling Doug Tamaki's Harley Davidson motorcycle to buy a mini-bus they used for their first tourism business.

A third brother, Brian Tamaki, is the high profile Bishop of Destiny Church.