SCHOOLJAAR: 2023-2024

NAAM: MEREL DEWAELE

KLAS: 6 LE NR.: 4

VAK: ENGLISH DATUM: 4 / 12 /23

LERAAR: S. DEMUYNCK 1 TERM.

ST

ORAL EXAM

Go to the BBC website (www.bbc.co.uk) and look for an article about unit 1
(New-Zealand) or unit 2 (The future is yours) .

The BBC website offers a wide range of topics in every possible field. Go
through the different sections and take your time to browse the site to find
a topic or perspective that’s new, challenging, different, ... in one or other
way.

The article should be at least 3 pages of text (without the pictures).

Step 1: Put the article (without pictures) in this Word document (on page 3) and add your name in
the school heading above.

Step 2: Select 15 words or expressions in the article that are new to you and type them in the grid
underneath. Explain these words in English. Highlight the difficult words that you selected in your
text.
Step 3: Write down a brief summary of this article in this document: 5 sentences
Step 4: Use your text for a reading exercise. Make 5 questions about the text and also add the
answers to the questions. Do so in this document.

Step 5: Upload this document in Teams. Deadline: zondag

VOCABULARY

Word Explanation in English

1 Regenerative Relating to the improvement of a place/system

2 Trifecta A set of three

3 Funnel-shaped Shape of a a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the

bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening.

4 Revered Respected and full of admiration for

5 Plush Richly, luxurious

6 Honk The cry/shout of a wild goose

7 Clung To stick firmly to

8 Substance abuse Harmful use of psychoactive substances (alcohol, drugs)

9 Chasm A profound difference between peoples viewpoints, ideas

10 Buzzword A word/phrase that is ‘in fashion’, frequently and used by lots of

people during a period of time

11 Canopies Trees/plants that hang over and cover

12 Compounded Consisting of, composed of

13 funneled Guided, directed

14 Hiatus A break

15 Coveted Desired, envied

SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE

Kohutapu Lodge in Murupara is a perfect example of regenerative tourism, challenging traditional
Māori cultural experiences offered in tourist hubs like Rotorua. There are no scripted performances,
but the lodge offers a day-in-the-life experience in a modern Māori community. Founded by Nadine
and Karl Toe Toe, the lodge engages visitors in activities such as eel fishing, hāngī cooking, and
interactions with local elders. The lodge is situated in a socially and economically disadvantaged area,
so they aim to transform the community through tourism, providing employment opportunities and
supporting local initiatives. They prioritize authenticity and respect, and have become known for
regenerative tourism, they have also received the price the Regenerative Tourism Award at the 2022
New Zealand Tourism Awards.

QUESTIONS
Question 1: What sets the Kohutapu Lodge apart from traditional cultural tourism models?
Answer: Unlike the touristic activities in Rotorua, they don’t do stages performances and scripted
cultural displays, they offer a more immersive and authentic encounter with the Maori culture.

Question 2: The lodge is located in a socially and economically disadvantaged area, how do they
contribute to this.
Answer: The money they earn from hosting international tourist is invested in the community by
scholarships, exchanges, donations, work-training programs.
Question 3: Has the regenerative tourism been recognized?
Answer: Yes, they have received The Regenerative Tourism Award at the 2022 New Zeeland Tourism
Awards.

Question 4: Why is this a unique experience for tourists?

Answer: The lodge offers hand-on-hand experiences for the tourists, to engage in the Maori culture as
much as possible. Possible activities to do are: learning to Eel, Hangi preparation, tour through the
forest, activities to help the community by distributing packages etc.

Question 5: What does the lodge do for at-risk youth?

Answer: They can take the the Whirinaki Forest Footsteps tour for free, this way they definitely have
the chance to connect with nature. The forest bathing is offered for free, this helps them to get a
deeper connection with the land and the community. So overall they want to improve their wellbeing
and development.
Kohutapu Lodge: A model for regenerative tourism in New
Zealand
By Jessica Wynne Lockhart2nd August 2023

New Zealand is emerging as a global leader in regenerative tourism, thanks in part to

Māori tour operators such as the Bay of Plenty's Kohutapu Lodge.

First-time tourists to New Zealand often perceive Māori culture as an itinerary item to be ticked-off
in an afternoon, usually in Rotorua. The North Island city has been considered the epicentre of
cultural tourism since the latter half of the 19th Century, when Māori guides first led British and
American tourists to the area's famed geothermal sites.

Centuries later, cruise ships and tour buses continue to shuttle passengers directly to
"Rotovegas", where polished kapa haka (song and dance) performances come packaged
with a hāngī (earth-cooked meal) and a tour of a marae (Māori meeting grounds). Across
NZ, this trifecta has long been the blueprint for Indigenous tourism.

But an hour south-east of Rotorua in Murupara – one of the country's most socially and
economically disadvantaged communities – a family-owned business is flipping the script.
At Kohutapu Lodge and Tribal Tours, tourists get far more than just dinner and a show; they
get the opportunity to be immersed in a modern Māori community where there is no stage
or costumes.

"We've always just called it 'real people tourism'," said Nadine Toe Toe, co-owner of
Kohutapu Lodge. "If you want a show, stay in the main centres. But if you want a day in the
life to understand our people, then haere mai whanau: you're welcome to come into our
home and our community."

That's why I didn't ask any questions when Nadine handed me a pair of wellies less than an
hour after I checked in. Instead, I followed her partner, Karl Toe Toe, to the edge of a stream,
where he held a basket with a funnel-shaped opening at one end. It was empty, save for a
rotting fish carcass inside.
If you want a show, stay in the main centres. But if you want a
day in the life to understand our people, then haere mai
whanau: you're welcome to come into our home and our
community
"The smell will attract the tuna," explained Karl, using the te reo Māori word for New
Zealand's endemic longfin eels, a traditional food source and one of his tribe's most revered
animals. He dropped the hīnaki (eel trap) into the water, tying it to a nearby tree.

Learning to eel is just one of the activities available to Kohutapu's guests. They might also
find themselves helping the Toe Toes cook a hāngī before packaging it and distributing it to
community members in need or sitting down for tea with local kaumātua (elders) at the
marae.
Accommodation ranges from basic cabins to a plush five-bedroom house, which is where I
spent the night. In the morning, I woke to the honk of black swans gliding across Lake
Aniwhenua, a narrow body of water created by the dammed Rangitāiki River. On the
opposite shore, mist pink with the morning's glow clung low to the perfectly planted rows of
radiata pine trees; the legacy of Murupara's forestry industry.

Ngāti Manawa – the area's iwi (tribe) – has resided here, at the base of the Ikawhenua
mountain range, for hundreds of years. The surrounding rainforest still bears evidence of
this early habitation, with wakas or Māori canoes carved into the rock. But it wasn't until the
1950s that Murupara sprung into existence, built to service the Kaingaroa Logging Company
and named for one of the river's sacred eels. The town's residents were employed on the
150,000-hectare pine plantation, the largest in the southern hemisphere.

WHAT MAKES IT REGENERATIVE

Based in one of New Zealand's most socially and economically disadvantaged

areas, manaakitanga (showing generosity to others) is one of Kohutapu Lodge and Tribal
Tour's guiding principles. The Māori-owned tourism business is "changing a town through
tourism" and preserving culture by creating employment opportunities.

It was a place of prosperity until the mid-1980s when the New Zealand government began to
sell its forests off to private interests. Today, unemployment sits at around 14% – one of the
highest rates in the country – and gang violence and substance abuse have both taken root
within the predominantlyf Māori community.

So, in 2013, when the Toe Toes announced they were uprooting their life in Rotorua to
return to Karl's tribal lands, a few eyebrows lifted.

"People said to me: 'Are you crazy? You're going to Murupara, of all places?'," recalled
Nadine. "I couldn't understand the chasm between how I could see the community and how
people outside were looking at it. I'd seen how beautiful this place was. And all I could see
clearly in my head was this vision."

That vision, she said, was simple: change a town through tourism.

Murupara, a place that most Kiwis would be hard-pressed to find on a map, isn't on-route to
any major attractions. Yet, Nadine believed a tourism venture could provide economic
opportunities like forestry once did. She already had more than 20 years of experience in the
industry, including as the national sales manager for what's now known as Te Pā Tū, a highly
awarded Māori cultural attraction that follows the hāngī dinner-and-a-show model. She
knew she couldn't just replicate Rotorua's recipe though.

"These are real people and real lives," she said. "This is not a show; it is not a song and
dance. And with that comes [the need to act] with integrity and respect."

Even before "authenticity" was a buzzword, she sensed that tourists were hungry for deeper
experiences. She was right. By 2019, Kohutapu was welcoming 5,000 international visitors a
year. In 2021, it expanded to include a day tour, Whirinaki Forest Footsteps. The forest
bathing experience travels deep into the nearby Whirinaki Te Pua-a-Tāne Conservation
Park, one of the world's last prehistoric rainforests, where visitors learn about its spiritual
significance. The programme is also offered free-of-charge to at-risk youth to help them
reconnect with nature.

Following local guides Himiona Nuku and Kalvin Stone, I hiked beneath canopies of towering
tree ferns and native matai and rimu trees before arriving at the base of a 1,500-year-
old totara. An endemic podocarp (a type of conifer), they've been recorded to grow up to
35m tall.

"Iti rearea, kahikatea tei tei, ka taea. Even the smallest bird can reach the top of the forest,"
said Stone, gazing up. "It's a message we send back to our kids."

For Murupara's youth, the community's lack of economic opportunities has only been
further compounded by colonisation and intergenerational trauma. Many are now the third
generation in their families to face unemployment. "They're jewels that just need a bit of
polish," Nadine later told me. "If my job is to build them a stage, then give me the hammer
and nails."

For now, they have the courtyard of the marae. When tour groups arrive, the town's youth
join elders in performing haka pōwhiri, a traditional welcome to the marae, and guide
groups through the wharenui (meeting house) before sitting down with them for tea. Unlike
Rotorua's highly scripted performances, it's an intimate exchange between hosts and guests.
Not only does it allow youth to earn a wage, it gives them a chance to develop pride in their
community – no costumes necessary – while engaging in cross-cultural exchanges they
wouldn't otherwise have access to.
When you see our people with genuine pride behind who they
are, it makes it a little bit sweeter
"Visitors are like, 'Wow, this is how you keep your language, your culture, your history and
your people alive'," said 22-year-old Erinah Cecilia Waiariki-Anderson, who has been a guide
with Kohutapu Lodge since she was 17. "When you see our people with genuine pride
behind who they are, it makes it a little bit sweeter."

Money earned from hosting international tourists is then funnelled back into the
community. This has included providing scholarships, international exchanges and work-
training programmes for vulnerable and underemployed youth, and donating NZ$30,000
(£14,500) to the local marae. More than 30,000 hāngī meals have been delivered to people
in need, including through the local school where students can meet international guests.
(The programme has been on hiatus since the start of the pandemic, but Nadine is optimistic
it will return soon.)

It's partially because of Māori concepts like manaakitanga (showing generosity, kindness
and respect to others) and kaitiakitanga (guardianship of the land for future generations)
that New Zealand is regarded as a leader in the regenerative tourism space. Since 2018,
visitors entering the country have been asked to abide by the Tiaki Promise, a pledge
underscored by these principles. In 2023, when the government released its strategic plan
for the country's tourism industry, regenerative tourism was at the forefront. And
increasingly, innovative new Indigenous-led tours – from guided canoe excursions to crafts
workshops – are emerging across the country, reflecting the diversity of the landscape and
its people.
"Regenerative tourism, fundamentally, is built upon Indigenous culture. Te ao Māori [the
Māori worldview] is regenerative tourism," said Nadine. "Now people are starting to see us
and hear us."

When a new award – the Regenerative Tourism Award – was added to the 2022 New
Zealand Tourism Awards, it became the most coveted. Few were surprised to hear Kohutapu
Lodge named as the winner.

"Regeneration is a continual process of rebirth and developing the inherent potential of a

place – and that's what Nadine is doing. She's created an experience that is deeply reciprocal
for both visitors and the people in her community," said Debbie Clarke, director of
regenerative development at New Zealand's The Centre for GOOD Travel. "It's not a passive
viewing experience. It's a deep exchange and it's an invitation into a community who shares
who they are on their own terms."

The next day, on our drive to check the eel trap, the conversation between Karl and I flowed
nonstop. We shared ghost stories and tales of our respective childhoods. He told me that he
was shy until they opened Kohutapu but now he can't stop talking. He said it's what visitors
crave most: kōrero (conversation).

Pulling the trap from the water, we found three eels in its mesh, all too young to keep. Karl
released them on the shore. They wound through the mud, a slow bid to find their way back
to the stream. One, though, seemed lost. Karl, without a thought to its slimy exterior, picked
it up and placed it back in the water, ensuring it would find its way home again.