Meet the People - 19

Dressed for the social side of Trenz 2007. Photo supplied.

Another in the series Meet the People - Ordinary and Extraordinary New Zealanders Doing Interesting Things - Justine Southwick never imagined that she would ever live in Rotorua but now that she is, she’s loving it. And as the Media Advisor for Destination Rotorua Tourism Marketing she gets plenty of chance to explore the area – in between organising itineraries for visiting international and domestic media, hosting and generally spreading the good word about Rotorua. When she’s not doing all that, she’s maintaining the Media pages of Rotorua Tourism’s terrific website – http://www.rotoruanz.com/ . In her down time she loves exploring the Redwood Memorial Grove, where magnificent 60-metre (200-foot) high Californian Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), planted in 1901, add a magic quality to part of the Whakarewarewa Forest; and with so many lakes at her disposal, swimming and boating are also on the agenda. “I’ve travelled extensively overseas and I think Rotorua combines the best of what you get overseas without the negatives. It doesn’t have the centuries-old European history of England but it has a fascinating past nonetheless. It’s easy to get around and it isn’t vastly over-crowded like Asia. There’s so much to do here too – no matter what you’re into. The locals are friendly and we don’t have snakes and poisonous spiders like they do in Australia. It’s a pretty hard place to beat!” www.rotoruaNZ.com