Jeanette Tobin (Ngāi Tahu) has come a long way from her role as marketing manager for a large pharmaceutical company. Today she is the managing director of Asia Pacific Superyachts, an Auckland company that provides high-end, personalized services to super-yachts visiting New Zealand and the surrounding Pacific.

“Our passion is to showcase New Zealand to owners, captains and international charter management companies as a fantastic destination for cruising and charters, not just for boat refits,” says Jeanette.

“New Zealand has spectacular scenery and what we can offer both on and off the boat, is unrivalled anywhere in the world. We want to encourage them down here to cruise with their owners, guests and families.”

Jeanette and her team take care of everything for the super-yachts – “we do all their immigration, customs and biosecurity. We book their berths and we create their itineraries for cruising. We organize charter permits if they’re required along with their fuel, provisioning, crew placement and any works required for the boats.”

Jeanette, from the Wairarapa Hume/Bradshaw whānau (with whakapapa ties to Moeraki and Puketeraki), lives in Herne Bay with her Brazilian partner Jefferson and two children, Grace 16 and Ella 12. She first became involved with the super-yacht business when she returned from living overseas and a friend, who owned a super-yacht agency, wanted someone to look after the business while she was on maternity leave. That was during the America’s Cup in Auckland in 2003.

It was a lifestyle Jeanette enjoyed for its variety with every boat having different requirements and in 2006 she started her own company. Since then, Asia Pacific Superyachts has gone from strength to strength. The company was named a finalist in the Excellence in Export category of the 2012 Westpac Auckland Central Business Awards, which are run in association with the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. The company has just been named in the top 10 superyacht agents, worldwide, by the leading publication, The Superyacht Report. Today, clients include the world-renowned M/Y “A”, designed by Philippe Starck and Martin Frances, and owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko and his wife, Aleksandra.

“We’ve had some great boats down here – Belle Aime and M/Y The Big Blue are two more we’ve worked with – and we go out of our way to make their time in New Zealand special and memorable,” says Jeanette.

Asia Pacific Superyachts has also made a strong commitment to including the indigenous cultural story of New Zealand in their super-yacht itineraries. Jeanette works closely with John Panoho (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whātua), of Auckland’s Navigator Tours, to bring a strong cultural element to visitors’ experience. John has been involved in tourism for 30 years and has a wealth of experience in marketing New Zealand to high-end visitors.

“John came to see me about voyaging waka a couple of years ago and how we could incorporate the Māori cultural aspect into cruising itineraries. He felt the canoe was a great platform for telling the New Zealand story given that the waka is part of our Māori whakapapa.

“Telling the story of the voyaging canoes makes a powerful connection with our past and our future, and for people on these luxury boats, it is a glimpse into a more primal side of sailing the oceans – especially when we speak about celestial navigation and wayfinding. Over the past two seasons, we’ve worked hard to bring a strong cultural element to our super-yacht itineraries and the feedback has been amazing. People leave us having had a uniquely New Zealand experience.”

Jeanette says the itineraries she and her team create are probably the most important and enjoyable part of their work. They need to accommodate the differing interests of every super-yacht owner, each of whom want to experience something different while in New Zealand.

“Some just want to get away from the world and sit in a bay reading a book for a month; others want to get out and do everything, see everything and experience everything. We make it our business to give them such a great time that they’ll tell all their friends about it and that they’ll want to come back.

“They bring a huge amount of money into our economy when they come here. One of our clients was in Queenstown for the day, in one local jewellery shop alone, she spent $80,000 in an hour on gifts for friends. They do everything and anything we suggest so they are all high value clients.

“Their time in areas is generally longer than most normal tourists too. This particular owner spent three months cruising New Zealand – 1.5 months in the South Island alone. They leave here very well educated and inevitably rave about New Zealand. Many of their friends and colleagues come down also – all with a similar spend and not necessarily onboard a super-yacht. Yachts like “A” really put New Zealand on the map for other mega-yachts coming here.”

She adds that, in addition to the owners cruising, there is a whole subset of tourists – including up to 60 crew-members per vessel.

“They’re in New Zealand for up to seven or eight months and they spend the weekends (and time off) travelling the country. So super-yachts bring a real cross section to the tourism spend – from backpacking to the multi billionaires – all with the arrival of one yacht. It’s this variety that makes the job interesting – we do itineraries for all parts of the market, which is really neat.”

Jeanette Tobin.

Jeanette Tobin.

Belle Aimee in Dusky Sound.

Belle Aimee in Dusky Sound.

A kapa haka performance on a private island for super-yacht visitors.

A kapa haka performance on a private island for super-yacht visitors.

Rewi Spraggon and Riki Bennett of Navigator Tours entertaining visitors.

Rewi Spraggon and Riki Bennett of Navigator Tours entertaining visitors.