We had quite a challenge last month - a VIP who wanted things to happen after the last moment, who wanted top quality, and who wanted costs carefully managed.
It's very difficult to deliver all of those at the same time. Typically quality comes with a cost and resurrecting expired deadlines takes even more cost. However, we managed and were very pleasantly surprised with the efforts all our suppliers went to in order to support us.
We had Bruce Kendall (Olympic gold medallist windsurfer) plus 2 top-grade sets of windsurf, surf and kitesurf gear plus a Russian oligarch and 9 family members crammed into two helicopters. These machines plied Northland from a base at Ray Arnesen's excellent Cavalli Island Retreat in the search for wind. Unfortunately the weather was beautiful, there was not a breath of wind in the sky nor a ripple in the ocean!
Our client was busy with business and could only confirm their arrival 3 days before they got here. Our thanks and appreciation go to the New Zealand Embassy in Moscow (visas issued in record time, thanks Tatiana); to Eagles Nest, Cavalli Island, Treetops and Punatapu who held pencil bookings for two weeks and then worked their socks off seeing to last-minute requests, and provided some amazing food and hospitality; to Puretastes in Paihia for more of the same; Omata Estate for keeping their chefs from their beds, and the list goes on.
The point of this story though is to point out that quality in New Zealand is inexorably heading upwards. Flexibility, which we harp on about as critical for luxury tourism, was there every step of the way with our partners - way beyond what one would consider normal for a country of our size. New Zealand looked very beautiful, very sophisticated, very competent and very easy to these clients. Thank you.
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