It’s an afternoon that holds a promise of summer. Tawhirimatea and Tangaroa are at peace with each other. Surf’s rolling on to the black sands of West Auckland’s coastline at Whatipu. A beach framed by jagged outcrops. We look for the taniwha’s tooth. We sit on a wind-bleached log weaving a harakeke putiputi. Bianca teaches Carol and Billie a waiata. Inspired by the setting, Billie tells us that life is not about the number of breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away.

There are plenty of those moments for the manuhiri on today’s Potiki Adventures Urban Maori Experience.

We are a small group today. Carol from Kansas and Billie from Texas are the actual paying guests ($145 each) as well as Potiki partners and guides Melissa Crockett and Bianca Ranson, their German intern, Doris, and the hanger-on from Mana. I am one in a trail of international and local media to have beaten a path to the office door of these enterprising businesswomen since Melissa won the prestigious PATA Young Tourism Professional Award at the 2006 Tourism Industry Awards in September. It was the first time that a woman has won this award and the first time it’s been won by a Maori woman.

Carol and Billie flew in from Hawaii and got to bed in the small hours, but they’re bright-eyed and ready for their big day out in Auckland when Melissa picks them up from their city hotel at 10 am, introducing herself in the traditional Maori way.

As Melissa dodges her way through the city’s morning traffic she explains the significance of Auckland’s volcanoes to the tourists. We head towards Maungakiekie – the Americans try out the unfamiliar sounds on their tongues.

First stop is the education centre in Cornwall Park where Melissa fires up a computer version of a simulated fortified Maungakiekie. We see warriors, weapons, kumara pits and pataka.

We then wind uphill to the place that, post-Mike Smith, is known to many Aucklanders as None Tree Hill. Views are taken in, along with colourful stories of the isthmus, of Tamaki Makaurau and of course, of Mike’s deed with the chainsaw.

The urban part of the tour continues with a stop to look at Maori art and crafts in the funky suburb of Kingsland where Melissa and Bianca have their office. (On Saturdays their urban trip includes South Auckland’s colourful Otara Market).

We head out to the fringe of heaven - Titirangi -for lunch at a popular café and then to the Waitakere bush and the black west coast sands. It seems everyone on the planet has seen The Piano.

Before we reach Whatipu there’s a stop in the Karamatura reserve for a bush stroll and a lesson in rongoa. As if on cue, the biggest fattest kereru flies nonchalantly to a nearby perch. Carol and Billie who are keen students of Polynesia note the similarity between the kereru’s fluttering and the sound of taonga puru. And they are visibly moved by Bianca’s chanting that accompanies Melissa’s account of the creation story.

The two women ask intelligent questions and obviously enjoy some of Auckland’s best scenery on a well-behaved weather day. But mostly they seem enchanted by these modern young Maori women with their obvious passion for their culture and their willingness to share it. It was, as Billie will write later in the ‘feedback’ book, a very moving experience.

“Thank you for sharing your Maori spirit with us today,” she wrote. This was a place an moment that took our breath away.”

Melissa, 29 (Nga Puhi, Ngati Kahu, Te Rarawa) and Bianca, 27 (Nga Puhi, Ngati Kahu) began working together in 2002. Between them they have complementary skills - Melissa is the ‘arty’ one with a university background that includes Maori Art and Traditional Culture. She’s worked in corporates and NGOs as a fundraiser and business development manager. Bianca is more ‘sporty’. She did Outdoor Education training with Ngatiwai Wananga Raorao Foundation, has a Diploma in Outdoor Recreation Leadership from Auckland University of Technology, and is one of the first Maori women to qualify as an outdoor instructor.

In February 2004 they set up Potiki Adventures which, as its name suggests, is the smallest and youngest - and perhaps cheekiest ‘kid’ on the tourism block.

They began to run outdoor trips in and around Auckland, taking tourists to their favourite places, giving them a slice of modern Maori life along the way, rather than taking them to watch a Maori ‘experience’ or performance.

They do this by weaving te reo and tikanga into the manuhiri experience whether they are kayaking, snorkeling, waterfall abseiling, mountain biking, visiting a Maori artist or weaver at home or going to a vineyard. It’s seems like a winning formula. They recently turned down an offer of a major investment in their company. As Melissa says: “The injection of a large amount of putea was tempting and would have sped up expansion of the company. But we believe we can do it on our own.”

They offer the urban tour on a daily basis as well as a seasonal tour that takes in the Leigh Marine Reserve. They also put together high end specialised itineraries some of which are exclusive and expensive. Balancing this, they take rangatahi, particularly young urban Maori on outdoor experiences, tramping and camping in the bush. Both Bianca and Melissa have previously worked for actor Jim Moriarty’s Te Rakau Hua o Te Wao Tapu Trust for ‘at risk’ young people. (Melissa is its current board chair) and clearly have a passion for this side of their business.

Both work hard, networking within the travel industry and doing tourism tradeshows.

Staffing is minimal though they have a team of qualified guides and support staff to call on in peak periods.

They use internet and email marketing extensively, targeting the international tourist market, mostly from the UK, US, Europe and Australia and especially independent travellers of all ages who want to interact with local people.

Melissa says they are also starting to get more interest from the domestic market, both Aucklanders and other parts of Aotearoa.

She puts their success so far down to self-belief, determination, lots of networking, building a reputation as a reliable innovative company with a unique, well-researched product.

Their future plans include growing at a sustainable rate. “We want to maintain our reputation for providing unique, memorable small-group tours, to provide employment for more young Maori people, to move into the European market and of course, to win another tourism award,” Melissa says.

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