The Chatham Islands are New Zealand’s eastern most outpost

… the first place in the world to welcome the new day and a treasure trove of endemic species that have evolved in isolation and make these islands one of New Zealand’s most biologically important regions.

Originally colonized by the Moriori people who created a unique lifestyle and society on the islands while living in isolation from the outside world on the abundant natural resources of the sea and land.

Later European and Maori arrivals brought their own history and traditions which have melded together to create the culture of the Chatham Islands. Today many locals are descended from Moriori genealogy, a history and culture that you can discover during your stay.

Welcome to the Chatham Islands – there’s a photo opportunity around every corner

Our local host, Toni Croon runs Hotel Chatham, the social hub of the island. Tour guide extraordinaire working in conjunction with The Travel Warehouse, she’s all smiles and straight-up good sort.  She’s often behind the wheel of her bus with up to 14 folks from New Zealand (they don’t call it the Mainland here).

On the beach around the rocks the native forget-me-nots are in full bloom – a very much more robust cousin of the garden variety, these island flowers are hardy specimens and drop dead beautiful. They’re found throughout the island. Cyclone Pam took out five metres of this part of the beach and many of the forget-me-nots with them in 2015 but they don’t give up all that easily and they’re coming back to this coastline.

Back on the tour, head to the nikau reserve – 19 hectares of lowland broadleaved forest on the north-western shore of the huge Te Whanga Lagoon. These forests were common on the fertile soils on the Chatham Islands. This nikau stand is the largest remaining.

Hotel the hub of the town

Our groups stay in Waitangi, the island’s only town – a couple of petrol pumps, general store, a museum and two hardware stores, one of which is owned by new mayor Monique Croon, Toni’s sister and the island’s first female mayor.

It’s the kind of place that wraps itself around you in a good old hug as soon as your de- booted feet cross the threshold.

At the bar tonight we talk to Cliff who comes here twice a year since he lost his wife. Toni takes him under her wing, gets him to jump in on her tours. He’s going fishing for blue cod the next day. You don’t have to wait long for those guys to bite, he says. Drop a simple line in shallow waters and a minute later, boom! you’ve hooked one. Cliff’s talking to Trevor who’s heading out the next day to Pitt Island about 90 minutes away by boat if the swell dies down and the fog doesn’t descend. He’s going hunting for the elusive and wild Pitt Island ram.

For dinner we eat blue cod cooked by head chef Kaai Silbery, who left the frenetic pace of Auckland six years ago for a three-week stay on Chatham. She stepped off the plane and decided this was the place for her before she even got out of the airport. Tomorrow nights dinner is Crayfish.

Seafood bounty

Hunting, diving and fishing are massive drawcards out here. The crays are on steroids, as are the kina and paua. There are no supermarkets. The sea is their larder.

Our guide points to some of the many kina and paua gripping to the rocks as the tide starts to come in. She collects a feed and makes the point that even though there’s an abundance of kaimoana on these shores, just taking what you need for a feed is the best way to sustain the food source for future generations.

We head back before she cooks the paua up with onions, butter and cream over a fire as the sun dips.

Spiritual home

The next day we take a trip up to the north east of the island around the lagoon to the Rākau momori – a stand of 600 year-old kopi trees with unique Moriori carvings etched into them.  There were more than 1,000 trees etched with stylised human figures but tree rot and various other factors have dwindled these down to about 130.

Relics of Moriori are sometimes still found on the island. After the 1835 invasion by displaced Taranaki iwi  Ngāti Mutunga  and  Ngāti Tama  the peaceful Moriori were decimated. Their numbers declined from around 2000 to just over 100 by 1862.