Back in the bush, back in New Zealand

Back in the bush again. Kahanui stream in the Urewera. Photo: Tania McKerrow.

Misty mountains, sunlit solitudes, beaches curving to infinity, meandering rivers, towering podocarp forests, Maori on horses and living in isolated communities, a small gas station at the entrance to the valley where the owner sells fuel, repairs cars, sells food, cooks fish and chips and repairs shoes, seemingly at the same time. The red-tipped dawns, the frosty mornings, singing streams, river crossings and scrambling up hills are just some of the meories I am taking away from the Waiotahi valley, river and beach where I have been exploring for the last six days. What made it so warm and was having my daughter and seven week old daughter Aliyah with me most of the time.

Early morning on the Waiotahi River. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Just over 8 months ago I had total knee replacements in both legs and since then I have been building up to walking 7 km and later 10 km a day. My trip in the Urewera region was an opportunity to see if my new knees would be able to take me up hills, along bush tracks and cross rivers again. I should have never doubted Ed Newman's skills. They carried me where ever I wished to go.

The Waiotahi valley is a remote Maori region inhabited by Tuhoe and Whakatoea, On Saturday afternoon when I was cycling from the road end down to where I am staying I saw at least ten children walking between farms. All were Maori. Two of guys who work at the centre, Barlow, Whakatoea and Richie, Tuhoe, run the farm and are storehouses of Maoritanga. Their main marae is at the entrance to the Waiotaha valley.

Tania told me how she stopped at a gas station near Opotiki a week ago and watched 10 Maori teenagers ride up on horses. Horse riding is in the blood here and most oi the hunting is done from horses as the dogs flush the pigs and deer from the ridges down in to the vallies where they are shot.
On Sunday I watched Ritchie and his relatives catching a runaway horse. Horses are their main form of transportation in the eastern foothills of the Urerewa.

During my six days in the hills and forests we went down tro Waiotahi Beach and neighbouring beaches and bays.

Ohiwa Harbour. Photo: Bob McKerrow




Bread, parcels or mail. Take your pick. Photo: Bob McKerrow


Ohiwa Harbour. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Whale island from Waiotahi beach. Photo: Bob McKerrow


That broad arc of the Bay of Plenty. Photo: Bob McKerrow


Tania pushing 7 week old Aliyah along Waiotahi beach



Monday 27 July


It is right in front of you, raw elemental landscapes. Welcome home.

I am leaving today for Christchurch via Whakatane and Auckland. We drove down the Waiotahi valley to the sea shore then past Ohiwa harbour, Ohope Beach, Ohope and to Whakatane for breakfast. Scrambled eggs and ham in a croissant. That coastline is superb. Flew from Whakatane, saw White Island, near Tauranga and saw Waiheke Island as we prepared for a landing in Auckland. “This is my land and I am firmly rooted in it,” wrote Albert Wendt. Today as we flew down the North Island, I felt I owned this country. Sprawling Auckland, Port Waikato and the Waikato river, Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngarahoe were plastered white and stood out proudly. Over a teal coloured Taranaki Bight, and then beneath Mount Taranaki.

All the ranges and ridges of the lower north island were covered with fresh snow. the Tararua. Ruahine, Orongaronga. The islands of Kapiti and Mana were visible.

Then it was home across the Cook Strait to Malborough and Canterbury. The Southern Alps were gleaming white.



From Godley Head looking across to Christchurch. Photo: Bob McKerrow

As soon as I unpacked my bags, my daughter Ruia took me to the hills and we walked down tg Godley Head.

In the Urewera

Waiotahi River

I am in the heart of Whakatoea and Tuhoe country. The Tuhoe, that Maori tribe made famous by the book ‘Children of the Mist’ by Elsdon Best, a people who repulsed British incursion into their remote lands.. This is a land of legends, spirits, remote forests, misty mountains and crystal clear streams which run to the mighty Pacific Ocean.

It is Thursday, having arrived in Auckland last Monday, 20 July.

My daughter Tania and her husband Al, and 2 month old baby Aliyah live here on the nabks of the Waiotahi river. Al is deputy Director of the Kahunui Outdoor centre, which runs outdoor courses for teenage high school students from Auckland.

I left Tauranga about 1 pm yesterday afternoon and travelled in south easterly direction, into the Bay of Plenty passing Te Puke, Matata and into Whakatane where we stopped to stock up on food for the week, and I bought myself a pair of hiking boots. From Whakatane the road climbs up over a spur and then one gets a marvellous view of Ohope beach. Pohoutakawa trees dot the roadside.

Then down into Waiotahi beach where they sell fresh and cooked oysters, produced on an oyster farm in Ohiwa island, A matter of a hundred yards off shore is the island of Ohakana. This is one of the most beautiful places I have seen in the North Island.

My daughter Tania and her husband Al live about an hour away from here at Kahunui, up the Waiotahi River in the forests of Urewera


On arrival yesterday afternoon Tania was excited to get a big parcel of new nappies (diapers) by post. They are cloth an quick drying, and more environmentally friendly than disposable ones. Then she said, “ Dad, do you mind getting your feet wet ? “ Never one to miss and adventure I replied, “ Why not?”

She slung Aliyah onto her front with a piece of cloth and headed up the road we walked up a stream and waded through its icy cold waters. Aliyah started crying and was hungry. Tania put her to her breast, tightend the cloth sling, and crossed the river again. We walked another 20 minutes or so crossing the stream at least five more times, all the time admiring the Podocarp forests.

Soon we came across a group of twenty or so students, who were on a survival course. Al and two other instructors were there. They had made shelters out of any dead material they could find, and together with one piece of plastic, had a home for the night. One young women proudly showed me the bivouac she had made.

I was so happy to be in the forests again. Being there with my daughter, grand daughter and her strapping Father Al, brought a dimension I have never had before. Three generations in the forests. I thought of my great father who explored the forests, mountains, rivers and lakes of Otago and Fiordland almost 150 years ago. Six generations of McKerrows have been in the forests and mountains of NZ.


Harp Tree up Kahunui Stream

Pohutakawa Tree in Ohiwa Harbour


Low tide at Ohiwa Harbour

Kahunui Centre

Stand of Kahikatea

Waiotahi river

With daughters and grand children in Tauranga. Tania holding Aliyah left and Kira right, holding Leith. I am in the middle. (all photos taken by Tania Burns)