Kawakawa road trip: Think it's all kooky loos? Think again

A new Hundertwasser Memorial Park is situated directly behind his famous toilets. Photo / Anna Sarjeant

In this series Peter Dragicevich searches out the top spots for a pit-stop on a classic Kiwi road trip. In Kawakawa he finds more than just famous toilets.

I'm sure we can all agree that if there's one attribute that's absolutely essential for a successful road-trip pit-stop, it is the availability of decent public toilets. With that in mind, it would have been completely remiss to overlook Kawakawa for this series, given that it's home to the most famous toilets in the country.

Home to the most famous toilets in the country, Kawakawa's colourful WC was designed by eco-architect and artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Photo / 123rf

This little Te Tai Tokerau town is positioned on State Highway 1 almost exactly halfway between Auckland and Cape Reinga, adjacent to the turnoff for Paihia. If you've ever travelled from Whangārei to either Kerikeri, Kaitaia or the Hokianga, you will have driven straight along its main street. This is the heart of Ngāpuhi country and around 75 per cent of the nearly 1500-strong population have Māori whakapapa, including local Labour Party luminaries Kelvin Davis and Willow-Jean Prime.

Esteemed eco-architect and artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser chose the Kawakawa countryside as his home for the last 25 years of his life. This was a man who literally had the Garden of Eden (Giardino Eden) at his disposal; in 1979 he bought a vast Venetian property with that name from the deposed Queen of Yugoslavia, including a historic villa and the largest private garden in the watery city. Yet, still he spent most of his later years here.

Hundertwasser's colourful and curvaceous buildings have become tourist attractions in his native Austria as well as Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Japan and the US, but it was in Kawakawa that he completed his final work. In 1999, just two months before his death, the town's toilet block opened to the public. Not only did Hundertwasser design it, he was personally involved in building the ceramic columns and planting the living roof. Twenty years later, at the height of the pre-Covid tourism boom, it was estimated that the toilets were receiving 250,000 visitors annually.

In the years since the toilets were built, Hundertwasser-inspired bulbous columns, tiled walls and bright artworks have sprouted all over town, culminating in the October 2020 opening of award-winning Te Hononga ('the joining of people') in a new Hundertwasser Memorial Park situated directly behind his toilets. This combination community hub, library, gallery and memorial consists of two interlocking heart-shaped buildings – one made of rammed earth and one of timber – built in collaboration with the local hapū, Ngāti Hine. Ironically it also contains a large 24-hour toilet block that caters to the masses coming to visit the still-functional original toilets, while also providing showers for freedom campers.

The Hundertwasser Memorial Park combines a community hub, library and gallery, the latter shown here. Photo / Anna Sarjeant

With calls of nature dealt to so magnificently, it's time to turn to the next essential requirement for a satisfactory pit-stop, and that's food. There are numerous options in the town centre but it's fair to say that none of them rival the splendour of the toilets. That said, you can be sure of a decent feed at either Elaine's Kitchen or North Indian Food on the main drag.

The other defining feature of Kawakawa is its vintage railway, which regularly stops traffic as it rumbles along the very centre of the main street on its 4km journey to Taumarere. Steam locomotives first came to Kawakawa in 1871, replacing a horse-drawn tramway built to transport coal to Taumarere Wharf on the Kawakawa River. It was the discovery of coal in 1861 that initially caused the town to be built here, and mining continued right up until the early 20th century. The line was extended 8km to Opua in 1884, where the coal could be shipped on larger vessels heading straight out through the Bay of Islands.
The rail line was mothballed in the 1980s but local enthusiasts banded together to get the Bay of Island Vintage Railway back on track. The plan is to eventually get Gabriel the steam engine running all the way to Ōpua once more, although this is a mammoth task involving repairing all 14 bridges and an 80m stretch of tunnel along the way. The track is now also shared by cyclists on the Twin Coast Cycle Trail (Pou Herenga Tai) which links the Bay of Islands to the Hokianga Harbour.

The rail line was mothballed in the 1980s but local enthusiasts banded together to get the Bay of Island Vintage Railway back on tracks. Photo / 123rf

Steam engines and world-famous toilets aside, there's one overriding reason why you should factor in a stop at Kawakawa when you're driving this route – and that's to stock up on Paroa Bay and Waikare oysters from the factory shop on the highway, two kilometres south of town. You can buy them live or in pottles but the partly-shucked half-shell option is hard to go past. It pays to have a chilly bin at the ready but the friendly staff provide free bags of ice in any case. Armed with oysters, your holiday's already off to a great start.

Check alert level restrictions and Ministry of Health advice before travel. covid19.govt.nz