In the case of the Ruwhiu, Karawana and Perriman whanau, they literally do all of the above — as well as working together.
Horizon Tours — winner of the excellence in Maori business award at last month’s Westpac Otago business awards — is a Dunedin-based family business owned and operated by two couples: James Karawana and Kylie Ruwhiu-Karawana, and Lyndon Perriman and Diane Ruwhiu, who is Ms Ruwhiu-Karawana’s sister.
In 2010, the family bought a large house in Helensburgh and it was now home to eight, including Kylie and Diane’s sister and mother and it doubles as the base for Horizon Tours.
"Not every family could do that, it’s pretty awesome," Ms Ruwhiu-Karawana said, while also quipping there was the risk of hearing "I’ll tell Mum".
At the moment, they did not employ any staff at Horizon Tours so when visitors booked a tour, they were accompanied by an owner-operator — and a family member. And people seemed to love that, she said.
Living together meant it was easier to talk about the business — "but you can’t get away from it either". But, in saying that, "we haven’t broken up yet," she laughed.
Planning for Horizon Tours began in 2018 when both Mr Karawana and Mr Perriman were "at crossroads". Mr Karawana had spent 30 years working in information technology, while Mr Perriman had worked as a ranger for the Department of Conservation at Taiaroa Head, on the Otago Peninsula, from 1990 until 2017.
"They needed a new horizon, hence the name," Ms Ruwhiu-Karawana said.
With her own long involvement in the tourism industry, she had recognised a gap for cultural conservation tours in Dunedin. Along with that, the family got on "reasonably OK", she said.
She had spent nine years with Cadbury, where she was events and Cadbury World manager, preceded by 10 years with Tourism New Zealand. She had also spent three years in Japan teaching English, which was where she developed her passion for New Zealand, and telling people about its Maori culture.
Establishing the business had, in particular, been a big change for Mr Karawana who had been used to years working behind a desk, rather than in the outdoors.
He was brought up in Wellington where Maoritanga (Maori culture and way of life) was a central part of his upbringing and he was passionate about sharing Maori culture and history.
Running their own business from their home also provided flexibility around the likes of school pick-ups —the couple have two children — and attending sporting events.
That was something they would never have been able to do if they had stayed in Wellington, both working the corporate life and "stuck in traffic most of the day", she said.
Ms Ruwhiu was also very hands-on in the business, and the stargazing tours were her particular "baby". That interest was passed to her through her late father, and she loved sharing it with others. Growing up, the family always lived in small towns which had starscapes and she would sometimes sleep outside.
Horizon Tours’ ethos was set around family values; it was also strong on education, community benefit and sustainability and did as much as it could to limit the impact that it had, including mitigating its carbon footprint after doing a study to establish what that footprint was.
Its commitment was to offer a values-based tourism experience and a portion of every tour went towards supporting a community conservation programme. With a strong focus on customer service, they also wanted to ensure visitors left as "whanau".
THEY had set themselves up to be as resilient as possible and did not owe any money. During Covid-19 lockdown, they were able to put the business into hiatus. They were fortunate Dr Ruwhiu was a lecturer at the University of Otago, and Ms Ruwhiu-Karawana also works as a tourism consultant.
When the tourism industry activity slumped, tourism planning got going. When there was nothing to work on in a business, then people were working on plans, she said.
She acknowledged the family was very lucky, as a lot of businesses did not have that opportunity and many were still facing "some pretty tough calls".
But there was a Maori saying Ka whati te tai, ka pao te torea — when the tide ebbs the oystercatcher strikes — and she encouraged those in the local tourism industry to use the downtime without international visitors to plan and build strength and resilience, to start to look at collaborative advantage, not competitive advantage, and to think outside the square.
There was an opportunity to position Dunedin as a stronger destination — a preferred visitor choice — simply by working together and as a team building the value proposition of the city.
Dunedin was not letting Covid-19 "define who we are". "It’s defined this year, but it hasn’t defined our industry. It’s a global disruption that will have an end date. We need to be prepared for the next one ... there will be something. Hopefully not another pandemic," she said.
International markets would come back and New Zealand was going to be seen as a safe destination so operators and the industry had to be geared up for that.
The city had not lost any major tourism operators while many other cities had.
When it came to the domestic market, Ms Ruwhiu-Karawana said "the team of five million really stepped up", getting out and spending and trying to engage as much as possible with the industry.
In October, Horizon Tours had the same number of visitors as the corresponding month last year, which was also when cruise ships had started.
But the domestic market could only do so much and research for Tourism New Zealand showed the country faced a revenue gap of $12.9billion a year without international visitors.
The spend was different and what domestic visitors were looking for was different from what international tourists were looking for. Post-Waitangi Day would be the challenge, she said.
Down the track, the family would love to employ staff, seeing that as a commitment to community benefit. She was keen too, to help young people understand tourism as a career pathway.
Often it was seen as a low value career path, but that was not the case. The opportunity for growth was high and there was the ability to run your own business. What needed to be done, as an industry, was to ensure the living wage became the norm and not the minimum wage, she said.
The family was delighted to receive the Maori business award, which showed them they were "on the right track".
It was also validation that you could set up a family business and run it in a different way — based around a set of values that were whanau-based — and still have a sustainable, viable business model.
