Gina Hodge-Noordhof

Gina Noordhof started her career as an entrepreneur/ restauranteur from the young age of 22 years. Opening the Norseman seasonally in 1996 & attending university to achieve a couple of science degrees from Memorial university during the winter and fall months. In The early years of running The Norseman , Gina employed a chef from the Netherlands, who prepared lovely dishes such as; Nasi Gourang, bakeapple strudel, baked local cod in a bread crusted creamy dijon mustard, garlic, roasted local lamb etc. In 1998, Gina met her husband Adrian (whom is coincidentally has a Dutch father) and together they went North during the summer to operate the restaurant. Two sons and 26 years later, Gina and Adrian have continued to operate their seasonal business and now their eldest son is old enough to work with them during the summer in L'Anse aux Meadows. Their youngest son operates a sea shell shop next to the restaurant.

 

In the fall and winter, the  Noordhof family live in the east end of St Johns, Newfoundland. They love to travel, mostly to European countries.  In the off season, Gina writes Children's books and comes up with innovative ideas for parents, grandparents and children . Husband Adrian is busy volunteering with the boys sports teams, planning for next tourism season, cooking fabulous gourmet meals for family & friends and taking the children around to their many events and activities.

 

Check out this weblink to see some of the lovely, useful products they now offer. "The Puffin playing by the Sea" book is a Canadian best seller, selling over 23,000 copies. The "Whiz Trainer"  an ice skating trainer with harness is a new product that was launched on December 24th, 2020. It is proved to be a wonderful venture, as they are selling the product all over North America and starting December 2022, will be sold internationally by their manufactures.

 

Gina has also sat on various tourism boards, as a member of the board or as president. One board that she sat between 2006-2012 was The Canadian Tourism Commission now named Destination Canada. Gina was a federally appointed member and a representative to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia on this national board that operated out of Vancouver..

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Gina won an entrepreneur of the year award from NLOWE. 

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