It’s about 8pm on our second night at The Landing, in the Bay of Islands, and we are in the presence of an unlikely New Zealand icon. There, waddling across a large expanse of lawn, in the moonlight, is a small, shy, flightless bird whose name is synonymous with the inhabitants of this entire nation.
If this one-kilo kiwi, of the Northland brown variety, is feeling the weight of carrying over five million New Zealanders on its back, it is not showing it. It pecks quietly at the grass with its long, sharp beak, hoping to unearth some tasty dinner morsels.
Related to two extinct species – Madagascar’s elephant bird and New Zealand’s own ostrich-like moa, which died out due to overhunting – kiwi have been under threat due to predation from cats, dogs and stoats, and loss of habitat.
So, it is testimony to The Landing, one of New Zealand’s most exclusive properties, set across 400 prime waterfront hectares, and its strong conservation efforts – regenerating native forest and wetlands and implementing a predator control program – that the population here has quadrupled in the past 20 years.
The next morning we get even closer to a male kiwi, sitting dutifully on an egg in a nesting box – as it does for 75 to 90 days, until an egg hatches – and are able to clearly see some of its unusual features, such as nostrils on the end of its beak, and cat-like whiskers. We also learn of the kiwi’s enduring cultural and spiritual significance to the Maori, for whom it is a taonga (treasure).
Morning at The Boathouse. Photo: Daniel Scott
Super luxury at The Landing
This kiwi-spotting experience is but one of the included elements in our stay at The Boathouse, one of the four beyond-high-end residences that make up The Landing, whose guests have included Barack Obama.
With private chefs on hand to deliver us breakfast, lunch and carefully curated dinners at our accommodation, which looks across Wairoa Bay, we are so spoilt during our visit that I have to caution my 14-year old daughter, Freya, not to get used to it!
Dinner on our first night, prepared by The Landing’s executive chef Mathew Cook, is a four-course extravaganza, including manuka-grilled paua (NZ abalone), a succulent Northland lamb rack, with kumera fondant, and a chocolate ganache dessert. The next night we feast on Northland snapper and dukkah-crumbed portobello mushrooms. Breakfasts include freshly made waffles and poached eggs from the property’s own chickens.
In between eating, we head out into the Bay of Islands, on The Landing’s speedboat, where skipper Brett Michalick shows us rare columns of black volcanic rock and shares some of the 800-year history of this part of Northland, dating back to the arrival of the Maori, from Polynesia.
The Maori called this area Ipipiri, meaning many places to fish, swim and settle. With its sub-tropical climate and natural beauty, it is easy to see why they made a home among these islands.
It was only when European explorers arrived here about five centuries later that their idyll was disturbed, with Captain James Cook anchoring the Endeavour off Motuarohia Island in November 1769, setting in train events that eventually led New Zealand to become a British colony.
This whole coastline is littered with evidence of Maori occupation and The Landing encompasses significant historic sites, including defensive hilltop palisades and burial grounds. It is also adjacent to Hohi Bay, where New Zealand’s first mission station, Marsden Cross, was established in 1814.
The Waitangi Treaty Grounds are a spiritual place for New Zealanders. Photo: Waitangi Treaty Grounds
Birthplace of a nation
Over the next two days, we visit two other places in Northland that played significant roles in New Zealand’s past.
At the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, near the seaside town of Paihia, we tour the site of the signing of the agreement, drawn up by British colonisers, and, on February 6, 1840, ratified by Maori tribal chiefs, that was the founding document of the nation.
It is a moving visit, taking in a soulful welcome at a meeting house and encompassing a stroll around the grounds, led by a young Maori guide.
“This was their fridge, this was their pantry,” he tells us, in a waterside forest, “the food was jumping out at my people,” before explaining how the Maori migrated across the Pacific Ocean, navigating by currents, wind and stars, in double-hulled catamarans.
We end the tour at Treaty House, the former home of police officer James Busby and his family, who arrived here in 1833 from Sydney, to be the British government’s first representative in New Zealand. Busby authored the treaty that secured Britain the colony, beating sovereignty claims from France and America.
The Treaty of Waitangi was skewed in favour of the colonisers, of course, as the excellent onsite Price Of Citizenship museum makes clear, recording subsequent land grabs and conflicts, like the New Zealand wars (1843-1872) in which the Maori incurred heavy casualties.
NZ’s oldest licensed hotel promises delightful views. Photo: Duke Of Marlborough Hotel
The hellhole of the Pacific
You wouldn’t know it now, but the seaside village of Russell, where we stay for our next two nights, was the Southern Hemisphere’s largest trading port in the early 1820s and was known as “the hellhole of the Pacific”, where local whalers and passing sailors fought drunken brawls and frequented brothels.
The Duke of Marlborough Hotel, where we stay in a lovely waterfront room, held the first Kiwi liquor licence back then. The only clamour here these days is for the best seats for the sublime sunsets, best witnessed from its restaurant, over a sparkling NZ rosé and locally-sourced seafood dinner.
Among the islands
We end our stay with a glorious day sailing among some of the bay’s 144 islands, with Silver Wave yacht charters. As we duck into and out of sandy coves, lapped by translucent waters ranging in hue from sparkling emerald to iridescent turquoise, we could be in Tahiti, from whence many Maori came.
We see plenty of marine wildlife too, from a vulnerable-looking little penguin, preening itself on the surface, to rays darting in the shallows, pursued by a bronze whaler shark.
At Moturua Island, we go ashore to follow a trail through a wildlife sanctuary, where reintroduced birds like the tui and the distinctive tieke, with its red saddleback, are thriving thanks to a predator eradication program.
Top destination for 2025
It is tough saying goodbye to this uncrowded, extraordinarily scenic part of New Zealand but we can console ourselves that we are, for once, ahead of the travel trend.
This whole Northland region recently made National Geographic’s prestigious “top destinations for 2025”, primarily for its opportunities to encounter wildlife, and notably to commune with kiwi. The birds that is, although the region’s quietly welcoming people are another Northland highlight.
The writer was a guest of The Landing, The Duke of Marlborough, Silver Wave and Waitangi Treaty Ground and travelled with support from Northland Tourism