New Zealand has been leading the world in terms of the data handling, and in more recent years, data visualisation approach in its school statistics curriculum. In 2013, bootstrapping and randomisation were added to the senior secondary school (Ministry of Education 2012). This paper gives an historical perspective of the people and groups that have influenced this statistical literacy based curriculum, including the local professional statisticians' association, the New Zealand Statistical Association (NZSA). The paper includes a short analysis of factors contributing to the successful implementation of the curriculum and its possible long-term impact on tertiary statistics teaching. It also outlines the impact of some of these New Zealanders, such as Professors David Vere-Jones and Chris Wild, and also Maxine Pfannkuch and John Harraway, on statistics education internationally through their involvement in the International Association for Statistical Education (IASE) and their statistics education research activities.