Let me say this first: we’re big fans of tourism. We’ve been promoting Wellington, and everything it has to offer, for years – the events, the businesses, the characters, the places that make this city shine. So when I got an invite from HNZ’s CEO Steve Armitage to attend the HNZ25 conference, I thought: great. A proper event celebrating 25 years of tourism in New Zealand. I was genuinely excited to cover it. Two days. Full access. Interviews. Content. Energy. That’s what we came for.

What we got instead was something I never expected – and honestly, never want to experience again.

Within minutes of arriving, a comms rep from HNZ came over and told me to “tone it down”. What does that even mean? We’re media. Our job is to tell the story – and in this case, we wanted to tell a good one. Tourism has been battered for the past few years. It needs support. But instead of being welcomed, we were shut down at every turn.

From the start, the event had this weird energy. Leaders from government and corporate tourism were standing around complaining about the media – that every story on tourism was negative. Mainstream media only showed the bad stuff, they said. Meanwhile, we were there with cameras, mics and positivity – ready to spotlight the good – and we were treated like a threat.

We tried to line up interviews. Got blocked. Again and again. No one wanted us near the action. One of our invited guests – someone we were planning to interview about Wellington’s tourism – was turned away at the door on Day Two. They were told they could only come in if they paid $160. This was someone contributing to the story, not just watching.

But it got worse.

I sat down to interview with the brewer Richard Emerson’s – a small business that’s done a lot for local tourism. Midway through our chat, an HNZ comms person walked into the middle of the interview, interrupted, and told him he had to leave immediately. I’ve never – in over a decade of doing media – seen anything like it. It was controlling, aggressive, and completely unprofessional.

At one point, they gave us 35 minutes to film a segment in front of a green screen. We’d asked permission beforehand, brought our own setup, got everything in place. Before we could do a second interview, someone folded it up and shoved it off to the side. No explanation. No respect.

Here’s the truth: Wellington has over 2,000 comms people. And it shows. Too many are out of their depth, trying to control everything instead of communicate. Some are young and clueless. Some are just plain rude. The comms team at HNZ, in this experience, were brutal, unapproachable and clearly more concerned with managing perception than telling the truth.

Wellington Live came to support tourism. We left disrespected, silenced and, frankly, shocked.

But make no mistake – our enthusiasm for tourism hasn’t changed. We’ll keep covering the people and places that matter. We’ll keep telling the stories that help our city thrive. But HNZ? You’ve got a comms problem. A serious one.

What should’ve been a celebration of tourism turned into a full-blown comms nightmare.

We’ve seen a lot over the years. But this? This one takes the cake.

Graham Bloxham, Wellington Live
We say it as it is.