Taking a Tour of Papamoa Beach with Rebecca

Rebecca Crosby showed us around her family's business today, and at age 24, she's got a full plate. Rebecca runs the Papamoa Beach Top 10 Holiday Resort, here on the beach on the east coast of the North Island. We talked with Rebecca and her grandmum Thelma, a charming woman with white hair and an easy laugh.

The land under this beachfront caravan and camping resort is owned by the local government. Like much of New Zealand, oceanfront property is leased, not owned, and that's one of the reasons this is still a low-priced camping area instead of a swanky Hilton resort. "We would have sold this off long ago and made millions," she joked. But Rebecca loves making her guests, who come back year after year, generation after generation, happy as they settle into to their spaces with views of the ferocious surf on the Papamoa beach. We toured the villas, with bedrooms that face huge sliding glass doors, practically on top of the roiling surf just outside. Here surfers coast on six-foot swells and the town supplies lifeguards, who during busy times patrol not only on the beach but in boats offshore.

Rebecca, a slim, attractive brunette with chiseled features and high cheekbones, said she takes the job of host very seriously. "We're the ones who they are spending their holiday with, it's important to make them feel welcome even sometimes when you don't feel like it."

The resort has undertaken a big plan to get greener in the years ahead. A group here in NZ made up of tour operators and hospitality businesses have organized a plan that presented 89 "opportunities" to save energy, water, and reduce waste. Rebecca has been hard at work at the resort's action plan, starting with replacing worn out bulbs with high efficiency models and educating guests about recycling and saving water.

The growth rate here is exploding, the highest in NZ, and there are not enough skilled workers for many positions. But before you pack your bags, check it out--they need nurses, teachers and very skilled jobs the most.