Waiuta is an abandoned mining town on the West Coast. Photo / Claudia Babirat
For decades, generations of New Zealanders have been embarking on road trips across our beautiful backyard.
But even if you think you know what’s out there, there are plenty of destinations even the most knowledgable of locals may have missed.
One man who knows New Zealand’s hidden tourist spots better than most is Peter Janssen.
He has travelled the length of the country 15 times, and written a number of books about hidden spots to find.
This week, he joined Lorna Riley on the NZ Herald’s travel post, Trip Notes, to share some of his top tips for different parts of the country.
Pouto Point and the Kaipara Harbour, Northland
“The Kaipara Harbour, we all think of it as a bit of a dirty old harbour where there’s a sort of odd grubby river here and there, but it’s enormous. It’s one of the biggest enclosed harbours in the world.
“It’s over two and a half thousand kilometres of shoreline, and about a thousand kilometres wide. So you go down to Pouto, and the whole atmosphere is quite different. It’s very stark. There are sand dunes, the tides racing out there, and the water’s sparkling clean.
“And it has more shipwrecks than anywhere else in New Zealand. It is a rough bit of coast. And we go back, even the original shipwreck was actually a waka called the Mahuhu in the 14th century. It sank off there and the captain died. Oh. And that started a long tradition of being wrecked in the kind.”
Rocky Hideaway Te Puna Quarry Park and Gardens, Bay of Plenty
“The people in Te Puna thought, when the quarry closed down in 1979... ‘we’ve got this big, messy quarry, what are we gonna do?’
" So they formed a little society and they turned it into the most amazing garden.
“And they’ve left some of the stuff there. So you’ve got a big digger, which kids can play on. And then there are tiers as you go up the quarry, different types of gardens. There are roses, there are azaleas. They established it in the early nineties, so it’s actually now quite established.
“And they’ve got the most amazing sculptures. And particularly what I love is the mosaic family - and this is a family, mum and dad and a little dog, all made outta mosaics. They’re tall, they’re life-size, and they’re just beautiful.
“And there’s another place where there are old metal pipes and things all just hanging, and it’s percussion, and kids can just go and bang metal! And so it’s in the middle of nowhere, it doesn’t matter what noise you make.”
Manutahi Taxidermy Museum, Taranaki
" You go down this little farm track and there’s this big farm shed, and there’s a little door and you think, ‘this can’t be right’, and you open the door and it is amazing. It is just stuffed full, literally, of stuffed animals, fossils, everything.
“I think there’s about 2000 items altogether. This all belongs to John Ward, who knows everything and everything in there.
[There’s] a rhino, everything is certified, so he’s got it all legally. And he’s got a lot of the birds under glass so they don’t get dusty, and he really looks after it. It’s fantastic. You will learn whether you have no interest in taxidermy at all, [but] you cannot help but enjoy his enthusiasm."
Remember that unexpected issues like cancellations, accidents and emergencies can happen even when travelling in our own backyard!
Waiuta, West Coast
It was one of the largest gold towns in the country - half the gold in the West Coast came outta this area.
“[But] in 1951, the mine collapsed. And so there was no work. So within three months, the whole population was down to 20.
“But what was more incredible is if you lived in that area and you wanted a shed or a little house, you just went to Waiuta and helped yourself. And within the free for 18 months, the whole town was gone.
“So what’s left there is quite funny. In amongst the bush, it’s got stuff that couldn’t move like the swimming pool, and the rugby field goal posts, and there’s a big concrete building with a big chimney, and it’s lovely.
“And what makes it really interesting is you can walk around this vanished town, and every now and again there are photos - there’s one photo in particular where you stand on a lookout point. You stand exactly where the photographer stood, and the photograph was taken about 1905, and you are looking at what Waiuta was and what it is today.”
Lake Heron, Canterbury
“[People] probably not heard of the Ashburton Lakes, in behind Mount Somers. And there are three Lakes; Lake Camp, Lake Clearwater and Lake Heron, and they are part of the Hakatere Conservation Park, which is enormous.
“But all around you surrounded by mountains and in particular, it is preserving the Great Crested Grebe or the Puteketeke, which was made very famous a few years ago with Bird of the Year - and they’re beautiful and they’re often easy to see ‘cause they’re quite striking and they’re not shy birds.
“And then you get to the lake and then you do a walk, maybe takes half an hour to walk up onto this hill, and you have a 360 view with mountains all around.
“If you strike a lovely, sunny, crisp day after it snowed in Canterbury, it’s just magical, and it’s almost free of development.”
Listen to the full episode for more tips from Peter about New Zealand’s hidden road trip spots.
Trip Notes is an NZ Herald podcast hosted by Lorna Riley, a keen travel writer and enthusiast and host of Coast Days. New episodes are available every Tuesday.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Traffic will be detoured between 11am and 1pm in the Kamai Range.