Our story begins with an email Gweneth Mott (Gwen) wrote to the Times, telling us that Natasha Warfield, her cruise consultant at Travel Associates, had just won a big award.

The accolade is Cruise Consultant of the Year for New Zealand, and Natasha and her husband Pete went to Sydney’s Star Grand Hotel to collect it.

Thanks for the news tip, Gwen, who says Natasha “is very deserving of this award”.

When the Times visited Travel Associates in Howick’s Moore Street, Natasha was all smiles – she’s modest and happy with her accolade, the first for the experienced consultant.

The glitzy, big-production Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Awards are for, as the title suggests, the cruise industry and operators, agencies, businesses and personnel, with the Sydney celebration for Australia and New Zealand.

Natasha was one of 10 nominated finalists in the New Zealand class – and won.

She says she was pleasantly “gobsmacked – very honoured to be a finalist”.

A big part of CLIA is to lead development of the cruise sector and its people, and through that saw Natasha also becoming a Cruise Master in the past year.

She adds about the award that it’s a nice “snippet of life”.

“It’s been overwhelming and a privilege to win. We’re a great team. I’m very grateful.”

Natasha’s worked as a cruise consultant in east Auckland for nine years and one of the focuses is being thorough in knowing how cruises will work for her clients.

“For me, it’s opening it up to people of all ages – families. There is something for everyone to experience.”

With Natasha at Travel Associates is business leader, Michael Cory Toussaint, who says her “incredible award is very well deserved”, judged on the year’s work in 2024.

They’ve worked together for a long time and have come through the quieter, unstable times such as during the pandemic, when it was only them, to building up a team again now numbering six consultants, all with their special skillsets.

Michael says Natasha does a lot of ongoing training as a “passionate cruise specialist” with her Howick colleagues, and the knowledge sharing is reciprocal – “we work very well as a team”.

“Our service levels are testament to why our customers keep coming back,” he says.

They’ve welcomed Flynn Cox to the team, the next Travel Associates consultant, who has just been a CLIA Awards finalist in the Rising Star class.

And completing the exciting time of acknowledgements is Michael’s selection as finalist in the Travel Agents’ Retail Manager of the Year class of the National Tourism Industry Awards this month.

We, and Travel Associates clients, wish him all the best for that.