Meet the Fullers
by Metropol | October 1, 2025 9:10 am
If there’s any pair who know how to host, it’s Marty and Naomi Fuller, and it’s not all they can do. The trophy cabinet of one of Christchurch’s best hospitality duos holds more than a few shiny awards – it’s home to something you can only win after running all seven of the World Marathon Majors. Metropol editor Nina Tucker goes behind the glass.
You would be hard pushed to find a Cantabrian who hasn’t stepped foot inside one of Marty Fuller’s venues over his 50-year career. From Christchurch to Picton and even up in Auckland, this man has stamped his mark on the country’s hospitality scene. His wife Naomi, on the other hand, has stepped foot across the finish line of the seven biggest marathons worldwide, in Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York City, and most recently Sydney.
While Naomi wakes at 5am to run or gym – whatever form of training she’s decided for the next trek she’ll tackle – Marty begins his day with breakfast and catching up on the latest news headlines. He exercises next, a walk or gym session, and then heads to set up shop. It’s the kind of refined, fine-tuned routine you would expect from a couple who set up award-winning venues like clockwork.
Over the years, Marty, with other partners, established Christchurch hotspots like The Bog, The Craic, and Trevinos. His career in hospitality is illustrious, but only the result of good old-fashioned hard work by a humble man. He’s held positions of leadership for decades with the Hospitality Association of New Zealand and other trusts. The match-up of Marty and Naomi? It was all because of an advert Marty placed in the paper – one that encouraged Naomi, who had worked multiple jobs in accounting and hospitality, to apply. “Best decision I ever made,” he smiles. Together they run The Elmwood Trading Co on Normans Road, a multi award-winning venue famous for being the ‘best local’.
“They’ll feed the family, pay the rent, fill up the car, all of that stuff, and if there’s anything left over, they’ll spend it on leisure activities”.
Local is exactly where their strategy lies. “You can’t just expect people to walk into your businesses, you know. You have to go out into the community,” Marty explains. The Fullers support those that support them: sponsoring the Canterbury Jockey Club, Metropolitan Trotting Club, Jasi Swim Club, cricket, rugby, netball and tennis clubs, and schools like St Andrew’s College, St Bede’s College, and Christchurch Boys’ High School. “This industry is all about people,” Marty says.
Marty’s ethos is in treating every customer like his best friend. “You have got to love your customers, because if you don’t love them, someone else will.” He recounts the months that followed the Covid-19 lockdowns, when the country opened back up and the locals returned as if they’d never left. “You only win New Zealand’s ‘best local’ by having New Zealand’s best locals,” Marty explains. When first crowned the title in 2022, “We came back and shouted the pub and put on a whole lot of drinks and celebrated it with them.”
Even so, the hospitality industry has been, and still is, one of the hardest hit in recent years. According to Centrix data, hospitality has seen 297 closures in the past year, a 49% increase year-on-year. “It’s not all monuments. We’ve had a few tombstones,” Marty reflects. Like many colleagues, he’s had to fight to get some businesses out of trouble – and it hasn’t just been Covid-19’s fault. He recounts the curveballs, from the share market crash of 1987 to the Global Financial Crisis of the 2000s. “Hospitality is very exposed to downturns in the economy, because we rely on the discretionary dollar. We get the last dollar,” he says. “They’ll feed the family, pay the rent, fill up the car, all of that stuff, and if there’s anything left over, they’ll spend it on leisure activities.”
He explains the shift he’s noticed in eating and drinking habits during times of financial hardship: “Instead of going out once a week for a meal, they might go once a fortnight. Instead of going to a pub and buying pizzas, they’ll get a takeaway pizza. Instead of going to the pub four nights a week and having a beer, they might go two nights a week, but they’ll still go to the bottle store and get a dozen beers and take them home. So they’re still drinking four nights a week. They’re just doing it differently. They’re doing it cheaper, and pubs tend to bear the brunt of that.”
So Marty and Naomi diversified their offering. “You know, 30 or 40 years ago your food was probably a pie warmer, and you had Lion Brown and Lion lager on tap. That was it. The industry today is unrecognisable from 40 years ago.” On their famous fundraising quiz nights, Marty laughs at the transformation. “It’s not like when we were young, we were doing bottle drives, chopping wood and painting old ladies’ houses.” One thing won’t change. “You’ll never have, well, not in my life, robots serving behind the bar.”
LIFE OUTSIDE
The Fullers live a wholesome life beyond serving beers and balancing books. A blended family of six children and 10 grandchildren, a holiday home in the Marlborough Sounds, and a breadth of personal passions. They both exercise often, “because that’s important in this industry, it has its temptations,” and they’re committed to supporting each other’s endeavours.
Marty loves golf and runs international rugby tours. Naomi runs. When her daughter moved to England, the skilled runner Naomi set a goal to run the London Marathon. Having always run for the fun of friendship and coffee dates with her running partner afterwards, she’d ticked off Christchurch and Auckland marathons. In 2019 the London race introduced her to the World Abbott Majors. “I did London, and then realised that there’s a bigger world out there.” She was raring to race in New York City when Covid-19 hit. Naomi thought it was all over.
A virtual marathon saw her accepted to compete in the New York City marathon in 2022. Her next stop was Berlin. She completed the race in September 2023 – rewarded with a free beer at the finish line, naturally – and the pair then explored Paris for a few weeks before picking up a tour Marty had organised for the Rugby World Cup held in France. She soon completed Chicago and Tokyo, “I’ve sped up in the past couple of years. For one, in case I get injured, and then just because life’s so short,” Naomi says. Marty showed me a video of Naomi 300 metres from the finish line at the Boston marathon. “She was so elated. She crossed the finish line and just started completely breaking down and sobbing her heart out.”
Picking up an Abbott World Marathon Majors Six Star Medal isn’t even the best part. In 2019, Naomi came across a post online that said the Olympic Association would hold a special marathon for all at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. All you had to do was sign up through the running app Strava and track your mileage. Without giving it much thought, she did. Over the next four years, her countless kilometres added up until the pair were sitting with friends at the Rugby World Cup in 2023 and got an email. Naomi had done enough running to qualify for a spot on the start line. She was just one of two New Zealanders invited. That email quickly became the best 65th birthday present she could’ve got.
The race began close to midnight. “As many people watched this ‘marathon for all’ in the middle of the night as they did for the two main marathons in the morning. The streets were lined with people at 2 and 3am,” Marty remembers from the sidelines. Naomi doesn’t show off her Olympic medal but her grandchildren do at show and tell, she laughs.
The Fullers aren’t slowing down. There’s more marathons to run and locals to share a beer with. “We still come to work seven days a week. That’s the business,” Marty says, and it’s one they love.
Source URL: https://metropol.co.nz/meet-the-fullers/