Kuzzy Kogure - ‘Japanese Grandad’ to Queenstown and guide to the stars

A fascination with New Zealand eventually led to long-time Queenstown Japanese hiking guide ‘Kuzzy’ Kogure landing a job at Tokyo’s NZ Embassy, moving to Queenstown, and becoming a TV icon in his homeland.

“I had wanted to come to New Zealand ever since I saw a Japanese TV commercial featuring the stunning scenery at Milford Sound,” Kuzzy, now 73, recalls. Ironically, it would be the Milford Track that made him well-known in Japan, and responsible for attracting many more Japanese to the track.

As a young man, Kuzzy studied English for two years in the hope of overseas travel. He got a job for the National Bank of NZ’s Tokyo office. “The Kiwi people were just so friendly.”

However, as the eldest of two younger sons in the family in Japan it was expected that he would stay in his parents’ home in Tokyo to care for them. “I didn’t dare ask my parents if I could go overseas as I thought they’d say, ‘no’,” he says. “I couldn’t tell anybody.”

But the lure downunder kept tugging and after two years owning a coffee shop in Tokyo, in 1976 Kuzzy scored his dream job at the NZ Embassy in Tokyo, where he worked for 18 years, becoming property manager.

Every year he spent two weeks holiday road tripping around NZ. “I went more than 20 times. I just loved it. I had a good friend who worked for Air New Zealand, and he got me cheap fares.”

Eventually NZ Ambassador Sir Marrten Wevers encouraged him to live in NZ. “It was easy to get me interested,” Kuzzy grins. “Queenstown was my dream destination.”
By then 43, a married man and father of three, Kuzzy asked his mother if he could move to NZ. “I couldn’t believe it. She said, ‘Yes! Of course.’ It was so easy, and I’d waited all that time.”

Fortunately, it wasn’t his grandfather granting the permission. “Growing up Grandpa was a high-profile local government politician in Japan, and he’d come to Tokyo every year to meet Japan’s most powerful and famous Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei,” Kuzzy says. “Grandpa was very strict and had a very strong mind. He’d come for a special dinner and if us kids made any noise, he got angry. There was no conversation allowed.”

As a boy Kuzzy excelled at long distance running and athletics, representing his district and number one at his school. He then worked as a mechanic for Toyota, saving enough for those English lessons, just in case.

Finally, in 1994, 14 years after Kuzzy’s first trip to NZ, he moved his own family to Queenstown where he bought into Tanken Tours with Craig McLachlan and Richard Ryall.

Sadly, he and his wife divorced after five years and she and the children moved back to Japan, just before Kuzzy’s permanent residency was granted. “I was so unwell after that for two years. It was awful and the hardest time in my life, but I got so much wonderful support from people here,” he says.

Kuzzy launched his contracting business in 1999, guiding for Japanese company Alpine Tours, taking groups on the Milford and Routeburn tracks and around Mount Cook. He still does.

There weren’t many Japanese in Queenstown and Kuzzy’s Embassy experience and close relationship with the NZ Tourism Board soon landed him a role as media co-ordinator for Japanese TV and media. “I studied more about NZ and co-ordinated Japanese TV, mostly Nature TV, film projects here. It was a very good job.”

His role in 2000 guiding famous Japanese actress Yoshiko Tanaka on the Milford Track for an 80-minute TV programme, which was broadcast nationally in Japan, made Kuzzy famous back home. The programme has been screened seven or eight times since, including a recent re-run. “I became quite well known as a hiker. That exposure boosted Japanese numbers to 30% of visitors on the track. That made (Sir) John Davies so happy,” Kuzzy grins.

He says John and ex-mayor and Cabinet Minister Warren Cooper were a huge help in gaining permanent residency. “They worked so hard for me. I’ve been lucky to have such powerful people backing me with very good letters. It’s so hard to get permanent visas for NZ.”

Kuzzy met partner of 17 years, Kazuko, at Milford where she was working at Milford Lodge.

He’s forever grateful to this community for welcoming him wholeheartedly and he now tries to give back. In the past he’s volunteered for the Police as a translator.

“Because I’ve been here so long and I’m older now, Japanese who move here sometimes have problems to solve, so they come to my house to ask me,” he says. “I have experience settling into NZ so I’m like the ‘Japanese Grandad of Queenstown’,” he smiles. “I have lots of grandchildren.”