Tourism boost from Taika Waititi
Taika Waititi paid a “completely unexpected” visit to a Rotorua tourist hotspot over the weekend and has shared the experience on social media with his millions of followers.
The Kiwi, writer, director, and producer checked into Waimangu Volcanic Valley on Monday as part of his trip through New Zealand.
He’s taken to social media to document his trip, labelling the series “dads on tour” as he travels with his two daughters Matewa Kiritapu and Te Hineka¯hu.
“Hey what’s up, it’s T-bone. Just a little update here. Welcome to another ep of Taika does New Zealand,” Waititi said as he walked through the geothermal valley.
“This here is a big, beautiful hot water lake full of boiling water that will kill you. Welcome to New Zealand,” he joked in a video showing the world’s largest hot spring Frying Pan Lake.
“It’s a terrifying beautiful lake that if you step into you will die.”
Waimangu Volcanic Valley, located just outside Rotorua, includes volcanic craters, large hot water springs, and a variety of native plants and birdlife. Throughout the video series, he joked and told followers to like, comment, and subscribe.
“Make sure you hit that like button if you like the idea of me taking my children around the edge of a death lake.”
He also posted an image of the Inferno Crater Lake captioned “you will die in this enticing emerald pool”.
“Death, death, death — all around us. It just lures you in like a beautiful flower and you realise it’s made of knives.”
The director has also visited tourist hotspots Hobbiton and the Waitomo Caves.
Waimangu Volcanic Valley general manager Adam Hughes said Waititi’s visit was “completely unexpected” and his “awesome” posts would showcase the region to his 2.8 million followers.
“It makes me think I would like to go on a tour with him — it looked like they were having a lot of fun,” Hughes said.
“It’s so amazing that Taika with all his followers put up that content and then attributed it to Waimangu. It’s really cool because it gives us this amazing profile as a region and destination,” he said.
“Hopefully Americans think ‘I need to get over here and see that death lake’.”
He said the company had recently endured the “toughest seven months of trading” in history but business was now improving with visitor levels on the up.
This weekend it had its busiest day over the past year, he said.
“We really do need all the profile we can get for Rotorua and for Waimangu.”
He said the staff working on
Monday didn’t realise who it was until halfway through Waititi’s visit describing him as funny, cool and down to earth.
“Just like a normal customer but maybe a little funnier.”
Destination Rotorua head of marketing and insights Jo Holmes said it was “wonderful” to see Waititi choosing to come to Rotorua and sharing it with his international following.
“With international borders opening, the timing of his visit was perfect,” said Holmes.
“High-profile visitors are great for our destination as their social media reach is often phenomenal.”
Holmes said tourism operators were reporting the past two long weekends had been “extremely busy” — for some the busiest in many months. “We’ve all enjoyed seeing visitors flock to our wonderful city once again.”
Waititi rose to fame after the movie Boy was released and has since released other renowned movies including What we do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Thor: Ragnarok, and Jojo Rabbit.