New Zealand Walks: A week of walks on Chatham Islands
On 28th December 2019 twenty-one members of the Raglan Ramblers went for a week’s visit to Rēkohu, a remote and wind-swept destination, a twohour flight from Auckland.
Following the first of many wonderful buffet dinners at Henga Lodge, we discussed the week’s walking with Bernadette, our host, and Kerry and Vince from Chatham Island Tours.
To visit the historical sites and walk on private land, landowner permissions are needed and, for some sites, a nominal entry fee is charged. Henga Lodge’s fleet provided the transport and we generally travelled as two groups; SUVs were also available for anyone wishing to pursue other interests e.g. fishing or photography.
Henga Lodge is situated above Lake Marakapia, looking north over farmland and the distant volcanic cones and sheltered from the prevailing south-westerlies.
The adjacent Henga Scenic Reserve provides very pleasant bushwalks to Long Beach’s extensive dunes and views over Petre Bay. It was lovely to be free to walk in the reserve at any time. The shortest loop takes about 30 minutes, while the whole loop takes about two hours. The tracks are well marked with blue poles.
Sunday dawned chilly with a south-westerly and cloudy sky. We set off with Kerry and Vince, our drivers/guides, towards the north-west of the island, stopping frequently for photographs and to admire the wonderful views.
Our first walk across a paddock, and up and down a small incline to the Ohira Bay basalt columns took about 30 minutes. The basalt columns were reminiscent of the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland and our own Raglan Bridal Veil falls.
Next, we stopped at the Stone Cottage beneath Mount Manganui. Built around 1866-1868 by German Lutheran Missionaries, the cottage was listed by New
A week of walks on the Chatham Islands
Zealand Heritage as Category 1 in 1991. To visit, we drove to the western side of Maunganui Bluff and parked on the side of the metal road.
After an easy 30 minute scenic hike, snaking across the paddocks and keeping to the lower slopes to avoid the swampy areas and herds of cattle and wild horses, we arrived at the back of the cottage where Helen Bint greeted us warmly.
Helen was happy to share experiences of her colourful life at the cottage where she lives alone without any modern amenities. We ate our packed lunch on the lawn.
After lunch, we followed the pathway through the dunes for about 20 minutes down onto Maunganui Beach with its shells and giant basalt ‘Cathedral Rocks’.
Back in the vehicles, we carried on to Waitangi West Beach, where we spent about an hour walking along the white sandy beach, with heaps of kelp washed up from the recent storm. Several brave people collected some paua, getting rather wet on a cold
and blustery day. That evening the chef at Henga Lodge turned them into a wonderful dish for us.
On Monday, the weather had improved, and the cloud lifted. The group split into two groups and seven drove south to the Awatotara Gorge Bird Sanctuary. Awatotara is a 70-hectare block that was fenced off under a covenant in 1992. This area is now a secure breeding ground for taiko and Chatham petrels.
A three-hour, medium-grade hike took us down through pine trees and regenerating bush with views out to sea. The gorge then dropped steeply down to the rocky bay covered with flowering native geranium, hebes and succulents.
After lunch we went back up the gorge at its lowest level, crossing the brown peat-dyed stream several times with the help of judiciously placed rocks and ropes. The bush here was more varied and lush than in the other reserves we visited.
Along the way, we saw a Chatham Island kereru (a larger sub-species with a yellow tip to its beak) and fantails with their lighter coloured tails.
A visit to the Waitangi Hotel for coffee and cake rounded off the day.
The other group took the 20-minute flight to Pitt Island. As the Cessna plane only carries five passengers everyone had a window seat. We flew over the south of Rēkohu providing wonderful birds-eye views of the spectacular coastline with its waterfalls.
On arrival, our tour guide for the day, Brent, drove us to an 1869 shepherd’s cottage at Glory Bay. Here we explored the bay and heard stories about the treacherous coastline of Pitt.
Our first hike was through Caravan Bush Reserve, ringed by a cat-proof fence it has both a toilet and picnic area within.
The easy one hour guided walk took us through some beautiful bush and allowed us to see how the Department of Conservation has developed an intensive programme of cross-fostering and hand-rearing Chatham petrels. The reserve is now home to some of the world’s rarest birds and
A week of walks on the Chatham Islands
plants.
Lunch was at Flowerpot Lodge where we sampled delicious lamb and paua before heading on to Waihere Bay, to the south-east.
Nearby Mangere Island has the largest population of the critically endangered - but recovering black robin. Waihere Bay is also an important geological site for its sediments and fossils.
Too soon, it was time to fly back to the main island, but we were all grateful to have had the opportunity to experience the magic of this tiny island with just 40 residents.
On New Year’s Eve, we drove into Waitangi and climbed Tikitiki Hill for views over the bay. After a visit to the museum and craft shop in the morning, we had intended to go to the Chatham Island races but sadly, due to poor weather, they were cancelled so we went to the hotel for coffee instead.
Finally, the sun crept out giving some a chance to spend an hour beachcombing along the white sand beach and across the dunes. The sea had a good swell which produced some marvellous waves that caught the sunlight beautifully.
Later, we headed off to visit Owenga, Manukau Point the statue of Tommy Solomon, the last full-blooded Moriori who died in 1933.
We also visited the nearby shag colony, the extensive and undisturbed shoreline, and the small fishing port before driving north along the ‘paper road’ to the 19 hectare Nikau Bush Reserve on the hill to the west of North Road. The Nikau palm is the only palm endemic to Rēkohu.
We entered the reserve over a stile and made our way across the paddocks. The loop walk takes about an hour, is clearly signposted, has numerous information boards about the flora and fauna, a shelter, and public toilets.
Since the land was purchased and fenced off by the Government in 1981 the bush has flourished. Here we had our first sighting of a flowering Chatham Island Christmas tree, Brachyglottis huntii, with its splendid yellow, daisy-like flowers.
After another delicious dinner, some went over the dunes behind Henga Lodge to Long Beach to watch the last sunset of 2019. Although the wind was chilly and the sunset was not very spectacular, it was fun.
New Year’s Day was sunny and clear. A few early risers were keen to be first to welcome in the new decade across the Te Whanga Lagoon.
Later that morning, we visited the nearby Admiral Gardens and wetlands developed by Lois and Val Croonis and named after the local red admiral butterfly. Designed as a number of garden ‘rooms’ enclosed by native trees (mostly macrocarpas) surround
ing the modern house, the garden has a variety of fruit trees, vegetables, flowers, and a number of static and mobile sculptures. It proved to be a lovely way to spend a morning.
From here we hiked back over farmland and across the extensive dunes with shrubby vegetation down to Long Beach where we spotted a herd of wild horses with foals below us in the dunes. We continued along the beach, up the limestone bluff through the Henga Reserve back to the lodge. All in all, a strenuous 2½hr hike of about 8km.
On Thursday, we drove to Ocean Mail Beach, on the northern margin of the Te Whanga Lagoon.
First, we visited the 830-hectare Ocean Mail Scenic Reserve, a short walk along the beach past a shelter displaying some local children’s artwork, a picnic table and toilet.
Here we followed the Aster Walk, a flat 20-minute walk into the wetland to see the rare Chatham aster flowering, as well as the Chatham sow-thistle, orchids and other endemic plants.
Next was the Hapupu National Historic Reserve on the eastern side of Te Whanga Lagoon to see the dendroglyphs, images impressed into the bark of trees. Culturally significant to the people of the Chatham Islands, and due to the fragile nature of the images, the reserve was fenced in the 1980s and entry is restricted to guided tours only.
Our hike through the bush was cool and shady and we walked then along the beautiful white sandy beach, about 45-60 minutes in total.
Our next stop was Point Munning in the north-east corner of the island, home to a seal colony. There were many seal pups on the rocks being cared for by their mothers and guarded by large males.
We walked along the beach, a little further along from the seal colony, that had a deep shell ledge, a common feature on the beaches.
We sqeezed in a visit to Jim Muirson’s sheep and beef farm in Kaingaroa to see the remains of a WWII Short Sunderland, also known as a flying boat.
Finally, we headed to Kaingaroa township, via the remains of the Bavarian Lutheran missionary settlement at Te Whakaru. In its day, Kaingaroa was an important fishing settlement as it is well sheltered from the southerlies; however, some treacherous reefs have led to the many wrecks.
Friday, January 4th was our last full day on Rēkohu. On the way to Cape Young, we searched the shore at Blind Jim’s Creek for fossilised sharks’ teeth. The creek is
A week of walks on the Chatham Islands
named after James Fordham, a blind American negro shepherd. Cape Young on Wharekauri Station (named after an admiral, who was the uncle of the first European to land on the islands), is the most northerly peninsula on the island. It was first farmed as a sheep station in 1866 by Edward Chudleigh.
Our 4km hike around the rugged coast had the waves crashing 90m below us onto the volcanic rocks. The volcanic sands have weathered to form many interesting shapes in a variety of reddish-gold colours and, within the cliff, the sands are crisscrossed by impressive black basaltic dykes.
The Sisters (Rangitatahi) were visible almost 20km to the northwest.
Once we crossed the 99m top of Puhina, the vista of volcanic plugs and coastline was to the east, rather than the west. Below us, large fronds of kelp were being swept around by the waves; Edward Chudleigh, claimed some were up to 200 feet long and strong enough to moor a boat.
A little further on, the sea was pounding a wave-cut platform and flowing off in the form of a long waterfall.
Further on, the rocks turn from orange to black and then a long curve of the white beach sweeps
around the bay towards Mount Chudleigh.
At one point, we noticed that the waves were surging over a rock that resembled a daisy; this turned out to be a very unusual, spectacular, under-sea, basaltic pillow lava flow named Splatter Rock. The rock has very large, sparkly, black crystals of hornblende, known to the locals as ‘Chatham Island diamonds’!
A gate onto the beach took us through a shelter-belt of trees and rocks, a convenient place for lunch.
On the foreshore we found more endemic plants, Disphyma papillatum (Chatham Island ice plant), Myosotidium hortensium (Chatham Island forget-me-not, kopukapuka), dwarf hebe and several other small plants.
An added pleasure was spotting a pair of nesting Chatham Island oystercatchers foraging for food.
Our final stop of the day was Wharekauri, where, in 1867, one of the Hau-hau prisoners, Paratene, built several houses of treefern and thatch. Now known as Te Kooti’s Ponga Whare, it is being considered for restoration by Heritage New Zealand.
On our last evening, we were warmly welcomed to the annual community meal at the racecourse in Waitangi.
A delicious feed of crayfish, lamb, beef and ham with salads was followed by pavlova, cheesecake and fruit. This was a superb event to end our wonderful trip to Rēkohu.
Many thanks to our organiser Penny, with crucial input from Bernadette of Henga Lodge, and Kerry and Vince from Chatham Island Tours. As well as great meals (including picnic lunches), advice and help with organising our excursions, the lodge also provided books on local history, culture, flora and fauna, and attractions, both to read and to buy. Authors: Penny Hibberd, Tony Hibberd, John Lawson, Jacqui Malpas, Karla Rix-Trott