Craig McLachlan - A lifelong love affair with Japan
He may be a 4th dan black belt in karate, but Craig McLachlan’s more renowned locally for his soft, gentle side and beaming smile.
At one stage one of New Zealand’s best known Kiwis in Japan, many of Craig’s greatest achievements have been affiliated with that country he loves – the homeland of wife Yuriko.
Craig was raised in Auckland, “until I saw the light”, he grins. At 17 he did an AFS exchange to Kansas City in the US – an eye opener. “Kids there had never seen mountains, or the ocean. It was entirely flat.” The school receptionist thought he was Spanish because of his thick Kiwi accent.
After a double degree back home in business studies and Japanese, Craig - keen to rebel from the usual London OE, headed to Japan. He spent two years working, and learning karate in Tokyo, until he’d earned enough to come back to NZ and train for his commercial pilot’s licence. He needed the hours so came to Queenstown in the late 1980s to fly for Milford Sound Scenic Flights. In charge of marketing the flights to Japanese honeymooners, Craig turned up at the Parkroyal Hotel one day in 1988. “There was this gorgeous Japanese girl behind the reception desk, so I found a girl to take on my own honeymoon,” he grins. “I woke up yesterday and here I am!” He and Yuriko have been married since 1989 when they bought their section in Larchwood Heights and built the house they still own today. “Yuriko bought the section as I had no money,” he clarifies. That year Craig founded the Queenstown Karate Club.
Sons Riki and Ben followed in quick 13 month succession and Craig and Yuriko saw an opportunity to look after the growing number of Japanese tourists in Queenstown, launching Tanken Tours, which they owned with partners for 30 years.
Winters were quiet so they’d return to Japan for months each year for Yuriko and the boys to spend time with Japanese family. Craig turned to writing to earn some money, first walking the length of Japan – 3200kms in 99 days, and writing a book about his journey after wearing out four pairs of boots. It was an instant hit in Japanese, selling more than 50,000 copies so he then did the 88 Sacred Temples of Shikoku Pilgrimage and wrote another, also a hit. It was then that Craig heard about the record for climbing 100 Japanese mountains, then set at 123 days. By now he had some Japanese profile so in 1997 roped in buddy Travis Taiaroa and raised Japanese sponsorship to tackle the record. The Kiwis knocked it off in 78 days – slicing 45 days off the record, landing them on the front page of Japan’s leading daily newspapers – a big deal in a country of 125 million people. “We raced everywhere using paper maps.”
“By then I had some credibility in Japan so I approached Lonely Planet and suggested a Japan hiking guidebook,” says Craig. He’s now been writing for Lonely Planet for 25 years, travelling the world writing guidebooks. “My buddy had a tour company for Japanese hikers and asked me to guide them around Canada, Europe and the Swiss Alps so I did that for six weeks every NZ winter for 20 years,” says Craig. Lonely Planet got to hear he knew countries like Switzerland really well so the guidebook work grew exponentially.
The family spent a year in Hawaii in 1999 when Craig won a scholarship to study for an MBA at the University of Hawaii’s Japan America Institute of Management Science. “The scholarship covered everything and the boys went to Waikiki School, then we did six months in Osaka.”
Back home both Riki and Ben were showing great tennis promise, coached locally by ex-pro Lan Bale. They both played Junior Davis Cup, all the Junior Grand Slams and earned tennis scholarships to the University of California in Berkeley. Craig is still co-manager for Ben, who now plays on the ATP tour, representing Japan, and played for Japan at the Tokyo Olympics. Riki still travels as Ben’s coach and was NZ Davis Cup Coach in February against Bulgaria.
In 2015 Craig and a few mates were sipping sake when the idea for Zenkuro – NZ’s first sake brewery, seemed like a good one. Miraculously in 2016 they took the sake world by storm, fending off Japan’s best, to win gold and silver at the London Sake Challenge.
Craig’s now written 50 or 60 guidebook editions for Lonely Planet, his first novel, and e-books on various Japanese adventures.
These days he’s semi-retired from all that, but a “freelance anything” – still writing for Lonely Planet, with titles around the world, and is also a marriage celebrant.
Despite all these accomplishments Craig’s life highlight is still “meeting this cute little Japanese girl at the Parkroyal”, he grins, both soon to be Ojii-san (Grandad) and Obaa-san (Grandma) with their first grandchild.
