18 | Award-winning on Waiheke Waiheke Wine Tours was honoured to receive Excellence in Customer Experience at the 2026 2degrees Auckland Business Awards for the central region. Waiheke Wine Tours - Auckland Business Awards T T Kim Newth REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Sharon Killen is one of life’s big thinkers, with aspirations to match. In late 2019, her big idea to run wine tours on Waiheke Island ran into headwinds almost straight away due to the Covid pandemic. It would have been easy to walk away at that point, but Sharon persevered and stayed true to her dream. Seven years later, her big idea has grown into an award winning success story. From two vans in 2019, Waiheke Wine Tours now has one of the largest fleets on the island, a team of knowledgeable local guides and strong relationships with Waiheke’s boutique vineyards and restaurants. In September, Waiheke Wine Tours was honoured to receive Excellence in Customer Experience at the 2026 2degrees Auckland Business Awards for the central region. As a regional winner, Waiheke Wine Tours has progressed through to the Auckland Business Awards Best of the Best gala event coming up on 20th November. “Our team is over the moon with this recognition – it felt like we’d won a Bafta on the night,” says Sharon. “All our guides and administration staff have had such a positive response from people too. It’s good to be able to say we’re now an award winning business. We’re so excited to be in the running for a Best of the Best award too.” Back in 2019, ‘the customer experience’ was very much on Sharon’s mind as she formed Waiheke Wine Tours. From her own overseas SOHO CELLAR DOOR & EATERY WAIHEKE ISLAND travels, she understood that the best experiences often come through meeting local people with deep roots in their area. “What we look for in our guides is that same quality of passion and connection to place. Our guides are interesting people in their own right, who bring authenticity to the tours they deliver. They are proud of Waiheke Island and want to share it.” Members of the tour team work closely together and regularly swap stories about experiences and happenings along the way. Waiheke Wine Tours offers something for every kind of traveller. Sharon says there’s certainly no need to be a wine expert, as these tours are designed to be relaxed and welcoming. “Wine tasting is only part of it. The experience is about local art too, Māori culture, nature and everything else that’s here. We’re the only company on Waiheke Island offering Māori cultural tours with Māori ambassadors – it’s fantastic for our overseas visitors.” For corporate groups, team building can be part of the experience with group scavenger hunts in the mix along with lunch and wine tasting. Curated tours can be arranged with itineraries to suit particular requirements. Lone travellers or couples can jump aboard one of four daily package tours and join a group of fellow travellers. “Often people become friends for life on these tours – we’ve seen that happen.” As well as being an award winner, Waiheke Wine Tours holds Qualmark Gold and has nearly 3,200 Google reviews. Waiheke Island still feels like a different world and today has a spring in its step too. Mudbrick and Tantalus Estate are now both MICHELIN Guide restaurants. There is a growing sense of confidence on the island - and a thriving tour company that’s proud to showcase this very special place. "$! $ + !"$ĺ ( !+$ " )" $ĺ ) ŝ$ + $ ĺ ) $ĺ MagCo: The Marketing Partner That Does What Others Don’t For most small to medium businesses, marketing is often sold as a tidy 12 month plan, yet this is far from ideal for businesses in fast-paced, fast-changing sectors like tourism and hospitality. Auckland-based MagCo is a full-stack marketing agency that offers a different approach for businesses ready to scale. What fundamentally defines that difference is strategy, providing the bedrock for all that follows. MagCo is a partner built to move at the speed that businesses like Waiheke Wine Tours require. Waiheke Wine Tours is an award-winning operator, having recently received Excellence in Customer Experience at the central region 2026 2degrees Auckland Business Awards. MagCo works with Waiheke Wine Tours across three of its core products: MagCo Advisory, the MagCo Virtual Marketing Department, and MagCo’s software and development team. Together they cover almost anything a growing business needs. Through MagCo Advisory, director Mark Magcaling acts as a fractional Chief Marketing Officer, and in practice far more, with the advisory reaching into operations and HR. Mark speaks with owner Sharon nearly every day. “At that advisory level, MagCo got the right accountant in place to sort the financials and helped build out the HR team, well beyond marketing alone,” Mark explains. The MagCo Virtual Marketing Department rebuilt the entire marketing function from the ground up: SEO, Google Ads, all websites, socials and the overarching strategy. It gives Waiheke Wine Tours a full team, web developer, ads specialist and SEO specialist for a fraction of the cost of one in-house marketing manager. “Because that team is on tap, MagCo pivots the strategy every single quarter, keeping pace with a business that never stands still.” MagCo’s own software and development team built Waiheke Wine Tours a bespoke booking and calendar web app, purpose-built to run an operation at this scale. “The proof is in the partnership: over two years together, immense growth every year, and Waiheke Wine Tours is now New Zealand’s most reviewed wine tour company.” There is almost nothing MagCo can’t tackle for a small to medium business. Instead of juggling separate agencies, you get a group of specialists handling both the strategy and the delivery, so the two never drift apart. “We work with businesses across New Zealand and Australia, from all kinds of industries. What they have in common is they’re ready to grow. Waiheke Wine Tours is exactly the kind of client we do our best work for.” CONTACT MagCo T: 09 217 3767 E: brand@magco.co.nz magco.co.nz
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