NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Travel

Taupo: Go to your happy place

By John Bishop
Spy.co.nz·
6 Feb, 2016 11:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The pa-style setting of the whare on Te Kai Waho. Photo / John Bishop

The pa-style setting of the whare on Te Kai Waho. Photo / John Bishop

A remote high country hideaway offers a unique Maori experience, finds John Bishop.

Tom Loughlin takes people to their happy place, and that is usually somewhere in his own happy place, a remote piece of hill country behind Lochinvar Station at the Taupo end of the Napier-Taupo Highway.

He runs Te Kai Waho, a business which takes visitors - usually wealthy overseas people and New Zealand corporate suits - into the high country for an authentic Maori cultural and spiritual experience.

Te Kai Waho literally means "outdoor food", but there is so much more than just providing a feed and a bed in his purpose-built whare.

"People come to connect with indigenous lifestyles," Loughlin says. "They want a view about those lifestyles. I offer a personalised Maori experience.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I am spreading the Maori culture. My vision is to have umpteen opportunities for Maori to tell our stories.

"Some are not nice, but they are part of our history, part of what makes us."

The day he takes me into the hills, the only sound when we stand on the deck of the whare overlooking the vast valley is a gentle wind and the far off cheep of a miromiro.

Arriving at the gateway to the whare Loughlin explains what happens.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I usually do a karakia at the gate acknowledging the day and the space the visitors are in. Sometimes we do a powhiri - depends on the experience they want."

A couple from Switzerland are flying down in a day or so and Loughlin says he plans to "check their energy levels and see what they want to do".

A typical day would involve a 9am pick up from Taupo, a karakia at the gateway by 10.30am. "Then we'd build a fire, have some kai, go down the river for a couple of hours, then into the bush, and then some more kai."

The whare sleeps eight, has a full kitchen and bathroom, an outdoor eating area with a pot belly stove, heaters, and lights.

Discover more

Travel

Taupo: Healed by the waters

03 Jun 05:00 PM

It is solar-powered, and the water comes from an underground spring.

His target market is high end: senior management teams from Kiwi corporates and wealthy tourists seeking interesting experiences come here. "There's no internet and no mobile because there's no signal."

Loughlin charges $1400-$1500 per person, per day for his journeys into the hills, into a Maori experience, into hunting, fishing, trekking and eating the way the customer wants.
"I had this guy from Hong Kong, a successful businessman, who could afford to go anywhere and buy anything.
"He came here and I watched him and worked out he was fascinated by birds.
"I took him to where he could watch birds, and suddenly he was right in his happy place. He was
doing something here he couldn't do anywhere else.
"I don't advertise. The clients find me and we talk about what they want to do and the time they have to do it. For these people money isn't a factor.
"They know what they want and can afford to pay. Getting what they want is more important than the cost."
He will take people hunting, but only people who he knows share his values
about hunting.
"I don't market trophy-hunting. I market game management," Loughlin says. "Shooting old stags and hinds is a way of culling the herd. The old guys make exceptional trophies."
Food is very important. There is a garden with yams and kamokamo, the large, round courgette or Maori squash. Loughlin trained as a chef, and blends his skills with Maori cooking techniques.
Food is seasonal. Loughlin and his helpers gather piko, a fern used as a vegetable or a garnish, and green fiddlehead, the coiled green fern that some say tastes like asparagus. There also riwai, the purple Maori potato thought to have originally come from South America.
"A hangi is really pressure cooking, as we used to do in the 1940s and 50s.
He buys mutton birds from the South Island. "When we have a good cook up, people sit and pick, pick, pick all afternoon. They are in a happy place. That's what I do for them."
His guests are entertained here far from the normal madding crowd.
Up here, it's just the wind, a few birds, the occasional stag lying around in the grass, and a few visitors marvelling that a place so remote can also be so accessible and so enjoyable.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Travel

Travel news

Fuel leak grounds Air NZ's New York flight, second issue on flagship route this month

Premium
Travel

Is flying Business Class worth it? An expert’s guide on how to make the most of it

Travel

Explore Central Otago's latest attractions: Wine, adventure and more


Sponsored

Your Fiordland experience, levelled up

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Travel

Fuel leak grounds Air NZ's New York flight, second issue on flagship route this month
Travel news

Fuel leak grounds Air NZ's New York flight, second issue on flagship route this month

Air NZ's July 19 flight from NYC to Auckland was cancelled due to a fuel leak.

21 Jul 03:22 AM
Premium
Premium
Is flying Business Class worth it? An expert’s guide on how to make the most of it
Travel

Is flying Business Class worth it? An expert’s guide on how to make the most of it

20 Jul 10:00 PM
Explore Central Otago's latest attractions: Wine, adventure and more
Travel

Explore Central Otago's latest attractions: Wine, adventure and more

19 Jul 11:13 PM


Your Fiordland experience, levelled up
Sponsored

Your Fiordland experience, levelled up

25 May 12:00 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP