Emily Rutherford

Emily Rutherford is a New Zealand entrepreneur and founder and managing director of Kiwi Water Park, New Zealand’s largest inflatable water park, based on Lake Dunstan in Cromwell, Central Otago.

Rutherford grew up in the Queenstown area, studied commerce at the University of Otago and spent seven years in London and Dubai running large-scale entertainment events. She was building a successful events business in the United Kingdom when COVID-19 cancelled every booking she had. Rather than wait it out, she came home to Cromwell and wrote a business plan for an idea inspired by inflatable water parks she had seen in Dubai.

Kiwi Water Park opened in December 2020 and was an instant success: 4,000 tickets sold in the first week, 14,000 in the first season. By 2024, the park had welcomed more than 130,000 participants and 100,000 spectators across its summer seasons, featuring a nine-metre-high inflatable slide, one of the tallest in the world, alongside diving towers and New Zealand’s largest blob pillow.

Rutherford has since expanded the brand with Kiwi Slip ’n Slides in Queenstown and Auckland, turning a single Central Otago attraction into a multi-region summer operation. From the start, she insisted the business produce no physical marketing materials destined for landfill, building an online community instead, a strategy that has driven a 30% customer return rate.

She was named a finalist for EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2023, one of 16 finalists nationally.

Rutherford’s profile is noteworthy because she turned a pandemic setback into a regional tourism business that has become a fixture of the Central Otago summer. Her story shows that entrepreneurship does not always require technology or venture capital, sometimes it starts with a lake, a plan and the nerve to come home and build something.

Sources: EY New Zealand · NZ Herald · Otago Daily Times