Convene - August 2015

PLENARY New Zealand

‘KIA ORA!’

Our group arrived at Auckland Airport just before dawn. After we breezed through customs and immigration, a van took us through the sleeping city to The Langham, Auckland, our base for the next two days. With 411 rooms and 17 suites, The Langham is the city’s largest hotel, and we would learn that there’s a constant buzz in its lobby.

Thanks to the International Date Line, it was actually two days after we had left California — but it was a brand-new day in New Zealand. After a brief refresh, we boarded a fleet of historic cars — including a 1958 Rolls-Royce that had once driven Queen Elizabeth — to Auckland’s docks, where we transferred to the 105-foot “superyacht” Pacific Mermaid. The luxurious liner, which has been chartered by heads of state, accommodates parties of up to 80. With

20 or so in our group, we had plenty of room to fan out — but most of us took our coffee to the upper deck to soak in the morning sun as we whizzed over Hauraki Gulf toward Waiheke Island. (Waiheke means “cascading waters” in Maori.) An hour later, Ananda Tours was driving us over the hilly island — dotted with picturesque villages and wineries — and soon dropped us at the grounds of Mudbrick Vineyard and Restaurant in Oneroa. We drank in even more stunning gulf views during an exquisite lunch in Mudbrick’s rustic dining rooms (and featuring our first taste of New Zealand’s most famous dish, lamb, seared and served with harissa).

During afternoon visits to Stonyridge Vineyard and Delamore Lodge — an intimate retreat nestled into a hillside — Waiheke continued to enchant. But more Auckland goings-on awaited — so by late afternoon, we joined the throngs for a 30-minute ferry ride back to Auckland.

THE MEETINGS MEETING

An hour or so later, our bleary crew
suited up for the opening gala dinner
of MEETINGS, a trade show put on by
Conventions & Incentives New Zealand
(CINZ) that attracts hosted buyers from
around the world. Befitting an organi-
zation that plans for planners, CINZ
hosted the dinner at the iconic, hilltop
Auckland War Museum — in the venue’s
top-floor Events Centre, with views of
Auckland. After a Maori
welcome of percussion and
rhythmic songs, we glided
past the museum’s exhibits
to dinner. I encountered
the first of many unfamiliar
New Zealand fish: guernard,
a white fish that my Kiwi
tablemates described as “a
cross between salmon and
flounder.” They weren’t far
off the mark.

The next day, it was time to get down to business for MEETINGS 2015 at the ASB Showgrounds. While my fam-trip buddies — mostly incentive planners — met with tour operators and destination reps, I interviewed a few exhibitors and learned about two new convention centers that will soon open, one in Auckland and the other in Christchurch, which has been rebuilding vigorously after the 2011 earthquake that killed 185 people and did some $40 billion in damage. And