'Little NZ' in China could create 600 jobs

A huge tourist development in China focusing on New Zealand is the "ultimate marketing machine", says the North Shore marae creating a Maori village there.

The Awataha Marae in Northcote on Auckland's North Shore has won a stake in a multi-million dollar tourism project which will see a Maori village built as part of a New Zealand tourist theme park in China.

The project, with reported estimates of development costs varying between $200 million and $400 million, would see the creation of a tourist site called the New Zealand Gardens over 25 square kilometres near the city of Qufu in the north eastern province of Shandong.

To get into the site visitors would have to go through a new Maori village and cultural centre being built over five hectares by the Awataha Marae.

Marae spokesman Anthony Wilson said it would open huge tourism opportunities for both New Zealand and China.

He said the marae had already recruited 20 new staff in Auckland and would take on another 100 by February to support the programme. On top of that he said the new theme park, due to open in June next year, would create another 400 jobs.

"We are pretty excited about it for the prospects for our people. The scale of this thing is mind blowing.

"It didn't really sink in until I went up there, stood on the land itself and they showed me where the village was going to be.

"It really started sinking in how big this opportunity is and how big the project is."

Mr Wilson said the meeting house in the village would be modelled on the meeting house at the Awataha marae and create a cultural link between the Chinese and Maori.

"There are a lot of Maori families that have Chinese blood.

"The gene-mapping scientists put us coming out of Asia so in some ways this might be a return home."

The rest of the New Zealand Gardens would include a 54-hole golf course, beer gardens, a gondola, a dairy production plant, up to 1000 cows from New Zealand, and a vineyard.

Mr Wilson said the developers came to New Zealand to source all New Zealand producers.

He said New Zealand was such a "unique slice of the world" the developers realised the potential for a domestic Chinese tourist market as well as international tourists.

"When people go there and get a taste of what New Zealand is like they will want to come to New Zealand, there is no doubt about that," Mr Wilson said.

"The vision is amazing and the way we have managed to be part of it in any way, shape or form is fantastic.

"It is the ultimate marketing machine for New Zealand."

He said the gardens should be opened by June next year and were expected to attract millions of tourists annually from China and around the world.

- NZPA