The Tiaki Promise: caring for New Zealand

The idea beneath the places

Tiaki and kaitiakitanga

Tiaki is a Māori verb. The Māori Dictionary gives its senses as to guard, keep; to look after, care for, protect, conserve; to hold in trust. Tourism New Zealand glosses it as to care for people and place. It sits within a larger idea, kaitiakitanga, which Te Ara, the government’s encyclopedia, describes as guardianship, protection, preservation or sheltering: a way of looking after the environment grounded in a Māori view of the world, in which people and the land are bound together. A kaitiaki is a guardian. The English words lose something: guardianship here is a duty inherited and held for those who come after, not a choice made on holiday. The promise borrows the idea; it does not claim to carry all of it.

The promise itself

The Tiaki Promise was launched on 1 November 2018 by seven organisations working together: Tourism New Zealand, Air New Zealand, the Department of Conservation, Tourism Industry Aotearoa, Local Government New Zealand, New Zealand Māori Tourism and Tourism Holdings. It describes New Zealand as a taonga, a treasure, and asks everyone, visitors included, to look after it for future generations. It has three commitments: to care for land, sea and nature, “treading lightly and leaving no trace”; to travel safely, with care and consideration for others; and to respect the culture and local communities, travelling “with an open heart and mind”. Launch coverage gave ordinary examples: dispose of rubbish properly, drive safely, show consideration for others; and described its symbol as standing for sky, forest, earth and water. Read it in full on the Tiaki New Zealand site; we summarise it here rather than reproduce it.

The promise borrows the idea; it does not claim to carry all of it.

How it reaches visitors

At launch Air New Zealand promoted it on its international services, and it was published in four languages: English, te reo Māori, German and Chinese. Tourism New Zealand now offers the materials free in English, te reo Māori, German, Japanese and Chinese, for any operator to use. The most direct route now is Immigration New Zealand. After we applied for our NZeTA, its email of practical information for the trip, in January 2026, set out the three commitments alongside the Traveller Declaration, biosecurity, driving and safety, with a link to the promise. That puts it in front of every visitor who opens the email. Yet once we were travelling, in March 2026, we did not notice it again: not on the flight, in the airport or at the car-hire desk. That is one traveller’s experience, not a measure, but it suggests the promise is easy to read once and forget, which is why this page connects it to the places where it matters.

What it was meant to do, and what is known

The aim is plain enough: to ask visitors to share the care that New Zealanders are asked to show, at a time when growing numbers of visitors were putting pressure on popular places. Whether it works is less clear. The government’s Tourism Environment Insights tracks how many international visitors are aware of the promise, through the International Visitor Survey, but it reports only awareness, not whether the promise changes behaviour, and we could not read its figures. We found no independent assessment. Separately, most visitors now pay a NZ$100 International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy, which helps fund conservation and visitor sites; the government treats the levy as its own scheme, so we do not count it as part of the promise. The honest summary is that the promise is a request, and much of what it asks is backed by rules with real penalties, which the places below make clear.

How to recognise it

At the threshold: keeping disease and pests out

The most visible form of tiaki is a threshold you are asked to cross carefully: the biosecurity check at the airport, a cleaning station at a forest entrance, a bag check before a ferry to a pest-free island. In fresh water the same idea is called Check, Clean, Dry: clean boats, boots and fishing gear between rivers and lakes so you do not carry pests from one waterway to the next. What you can observe is the infrastructure; what it protects is invisible. The mistake is to treat it as bureaucracy. Example: The Kauri Tree.

In the wild: wildlife and the space around it

The second form is distance. New Zealand’s wildlife is often close, unafraid and unfenced, and the country protects it mostly by asking visitors to hold back, sometimes by law, as with whales and seals, sometimes by advice, as with penguins. The mistake is to read an animal’s closeness as permission. Example: Kaikōura.

In the landscape: places that are tapu

The third form is cultural, and it is not confined to a marae. Some mountains, waters and places are tapu, which the Māori Dictionary describes as sacred, set apart and restricted. Visitors meet this as a request, at a lake or a summit or a headland, more often than as a sign. At Cape Reinga, Te Rerenga Wairua, where spirits are said to depart, the Department of Conservation asks visitors not to eat there or scatter ashes. The mistake is to assume that public access means anything goes. Example: The Tongariro Alpine Crossing.

On the road: leaving no trace

The fourth form is the most ordinary: rubbish, toilets, where you park overnight, how you drive. Here the promise overlaps most with law, from camping rules to the Department of Conservation’s requirement for a permit to fly a drone on conservation land. Example: The Mackenzie.

What changes across New Zealand

Who speaks for a place

The promise is national, but guardianship is local. In Māori terms each place has its own people with authority there, and their wishes differ from place to place: at Tongariro it is Ngāti Hikairo ki Tongariro who ask that the waters be left untouched; around Rotorua it is the iwi of Te Arawa who host visitors. A rule or request at one site does not carry to another, so look for what the people of that place ask, usually through the Department of Conservation or the site itself.

Law, advice and courtesy

Some of what the promise asks is law with heavy penalties, such as marine mammal distances and camping rules; some is official or conservation advice, such as penguin distances and water treatment; and some is courtesy, such as how you receive a welcome. The promise itself is voluntary. It helps to know which is which, not so you can ignore the courtesies, but so you understand why some rules are enforced so firmly.

Places that reveal it

Eight places we have written about, each showing a different side of the same idea. The table sets them side by side; the cards that follow say what to notice at each.

The Kauri Tree

Soil is the threat. Kauri dieback kills the trees through their roots, and a single speck of soil can carry it. At Waipoua you brush and spray your boots at a cleaning station and stay on the boardwalk. When we visited in March 2026 we were asked to be very careful about it. Clean again on the way out; elsewhere, check whether a kauri track is open.

Rangitoto Island

Biosecurity inside New Zealand. Pest-free since 2011, the island stays that way because every visitor’s bags and boots are checked for soil, seeds and pests before the ferry leaves. What you see is the result: native forest growing out of bare lava. The checks protect the island, not you: there is no food, water or shop there.

Zealandia

Conservation you can walk into. An 8.6-kilometre predator-proof fence encloses a city valley, and inside it native birds rare on the mainland live within sight of Wellington. It shows what a large part of New Zealand conservation is about: keeping out the predators people brought. It is a managed project, not wilderness.

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Culture and nature as one. The peaks and waters are sacred to Ngāti Hikairo ki Tongariro, whose kaumātua asks walkers to respect the maunga tapu by not touching or entering any of the waterways, including the alpine lakes. The park itself began with Te Heuheu Tukino IV’s gift of the peaks in 1887. We found no published request about the summits.

Kaikōura

Here the promise is law. Whales, dusky dolphins and fur seals come close to shore, and DOC’s marine mammal guidance sets the distances: at least 20 metres from seals on land where you can, 50 from whales, no more than three vessels or aircraft within 300 metres of dolphins. Harassing or disturbing them can bring up to NZ$250,000 or two years in prison, and the rules at sea apply to anyone, drones included.

Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula

Your distance decides whether a penguin lands. Hoiho, yellow-eyed penguins, nest a short drive from the city. The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust advises about 50 metres, a quiet approach, formed tracks, and empty beaches from mid-afternoon to dark, when the birds come home. Nothing stops a visitor walking onto a beach; the protection is how visitors behave.

Te Pā Tū

Care as hospitality. Run by Ngāti Tārawhai and Ngāti Pikiao of Te Arawa, it began, when we went in March 2026, with a pōwhiri, the formal welcome, and the hongi, the sharing of breath. Hosts offer manaakitanga: respect, generosity and care. A guest’s part is to receive it properly. It is a staged experience, on its hosts’ terms.

The Mackenzie

Leaving no trace, by law. Wide roads and lakes draw campervans, and freedom camping is where the promise meets the rules. From 7 June 2026 a self-contained vehicle needs a green warrant and a fixed toilet; DOC bans camping at some sites, councils set bylaws, and breaches carry fees of NZ$200 to NZ$800. Check the local rules before you stop.

How to experience it respectfully

Most of the time a visitor is a guest on land that others look after: an observer in the wild, a customer at an experience, sometimes a welcomed guest. These principles carry across the places above; the rules for each place stay with its own guide.

• Clean on the way in and on the way out. Disease and pests travel both ways, and a cleaning station only works if everyone uses it.
• Let the animal decide how close it comes. Keep the published distances, and remember that disturbing a marine mammal is an offence; if an animal changes its behaviour because of you, you are too close.
• Treat a request as seriously as a rule. Where iwi ask visitors not to touch a lake or eat at a sacred place, there is rarely a fine, which is exactly why it matters.
• Take everything away and know where you can stop. Carry your rubbish out, use proper toilets, and check camping rules before you park for the night.
• Travel safely. It is part of the promise for a reason: plan for the weather, tell someone your plans, and see our guides to staying healthy and staying connected.