It’s Monday, two days after an election nobody has won yet. Three items, kept deep.
The election has no winner yet, so the bed levy question stays open until the final count and beyond
Saturday’s provisional count gives the governing coalition of National, ACT and NZ First 67 seats in a 131-seat Parliament, a majority of three on the night. That margin rests on a record overhang: National won 42 electorates but not enough party vote to earn any list seats, and Te Pāti Māori leads five Māori electorates on well under one percent of the party vote. Special votes, which have tended to lean left, are still being counted. The official result is due by 27 November, and RNZ expects some weeks of negotiation after that. Several electorates are within a few hundred votes, including Wairarapa, where National’s Mike Butterick leads by 139.
Until a government forms, ministers stay in office as a caretaker administration. Under the Cabinet Manual’s caretaker convention, day-to-day administration carries on, but significant decisions are deferred, and anything that cannot wait is meant to be agreed with other parties. For tourism that means nothing new should be expected on the levy, funding or visa front before Christmas.
The question that matters most to accommodation providers is the one this briefing set out last Wednesday: the five main parties gave five different answers on a bed levy. On the provisional numbers, the parties on track to form the next government are the three that did not back a council-run bed tax. National would share part of the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy with councils instead, ACT would pay councils $1 per guest night from existing levies and GST, and NZ First would allow levies only if they did not fall on New Zealanders. If the specials shift two or three seats, Labour and the Greens, who would both let councils set up a levy, come back into contention, possibly with The Opportunity Party holding the balance. A hotel in Queenstown or Auckland should plan for either outcome, and budget for not knowing which until well into December.
Business groups told RNZ the delay is frustrating rather than damaging, with the EMA’s Alan McDonald warning that the lack of a government heading into Christmas could dent consumer confidence. That is the risk worth watching for domestic tourism, which leans on the same household spending.
Source: RNZ, caretaker government explainer, RNZ, election night records, The Spinoff, Andrew Geddis, RNZ, business reaction
Stat of the day
67 of 131
Seats held by the National, ACT and NZ First coalition on the provisional count, in the largest Parliament since MMP began, with special votes still to come. (RNZ)
Both bidders for Tourism Holdings have put in revised offers, and the board will not say what they are
Tourism Holdings chair Cathy Quinn told Friday’s annual meeting that due diligence with both bidders has largely finished and that each has lodged a revised non-binding proposal. The bidders are the consortium of BGH Capital and the Trouchet family interests, which already holds about 19.9 percent of the company, and the campervan rental operator Indie Campers, which thl named as the second party in late September. Quinn declined to give prices, saying it was not in shareholders’ interests to discuss terms in public while two parties were competing. Both proposals remain conditional and there is no certainty of a deal.
The last prices on the record are the ones this briefing reported in August: $3.10 a share from the BGH consortium, about $686 million for the company, and $3.30 to $3.40 from the then unnamed second bidder. Keeping the revised numbers private is a deliberate auction tactic, since a published figure gives the other side something to bid against.
The interest for the rest of the industry goes beyond the campervan fleet. thl is the largest commercial RV rental operator in the world, with Maui, Britz, Apollo, Mighty and Cheapa Campa in New Zealand, but it also owns Kiwi Experience and the Discover Waitomo Group, which runs the Waitomo Glowworm Caves, Ruakuri and Aranui caves and The Legendary Black Water Rafting Co. Whoever ends up owning thl will own one of the country’s oldest visitor attractions along with a large share of its self-drive capacity. The next announcement should be either a binding offer with a board view on it, or word that talks have ended.
Source: Tourism Holdings, NZX announcement 6 November 2026, Tourism Holdings, NZX announcement 29 September 2026
Wairere Falls Track reopens after 16 months, in time for summer
The Wairere Falls Track in the Kaimai Mamaku Conservation Park near Matamata reopened on Wednesday with a ceremony led by iwi and the Department of Conservation. It had been closed since July 2025 because of rockfall and safety concerns. DOC replaced the top viewing platform, a bridge, stairs and safety barriers, and stabilised boulders, working with Ngāti Hinerangi, Ngāti Hauā and Raukawa. DOC says the project came in on budget and on time, and that cultural interpretation at the site is being explored.
Wairere is the North Island’s highest waterfall at 153 metres, and the walk to the upper lookout is about 6 kilometres return, three to four hours, graded easy to intermediate. DOC describes it as a very popular site, and its absence through last summer took a free, reliable half-day out of the region’s offer. Having it back for the peak season matters to Matamata’s accommodation and cafes as much as to walkers. DOC warned earlier in the closure that people ignoring it were slowing the work, which is a useful reminder that a closed track is usually closed for the repair crews as much as for the public.
Source: Department of Conservation
Coming up
- 9 November: Contractors move on site at Havelock marina
- 11 November: Princess Cruises’ 2028/29 Australia and New Zealand season opens for sale (Australian time)
- 14 November: Contractors start on the Hahei Beach Short Walk reroute
- 20 November: TranzAlpine runs Christchurch to Arthur’s Pass only until this date
- 22 November: Three Singapore services in a day at Christchurch, 1,560 seats on the route
- 25 November: Stats NZ’s supplementary population tables; Havelock marina community drop-in
- 27 November: Official general election result due from the Electoral Commission
- 28 November: Air New Zealand’s first Christchurch to Tokyo Narita service
- 30 November: Air New Zealand’s first Christchurch to Perth service
- 1 December: Paid parking starts at Cornwall Park, Auckland
- December: Reserve Bank’s next OCR decision
- Early 2027: MBIE resumes the Tourism Electronic Card Transactions series in place of the paused regional estimates
- 6 February 2027: Waitangi weekend deadline for user-pays at 33 Mackenzie toilet facilities
- 7-9 May 2027: Supercars at Ruapuna Raceway, Christchurch
- 14-16 May 2027: Supercars at Taupō International Motorsport Park
- 1 July 2027: New Border Processing Levy rates take effect
That's today's briefing. The Shoulder Season is back every weekday morning.