Worth A Detour North Island by Peter Janssen

This revised and updated edition of the highly popular Worth A Detour North Island by well-known travel writer Peter Janssen is the companion to his Worth A Detour South Island. He travelled along every road and visited every hamlet and town in New Zealand while researching his series of guidebooks. This gave him a unique opportunity to discover many offbeat attractions and quirky places, and to meet some locals with great stories to tell.

Peter Janssen describes Worth a Detour North Island as ‘A varied collection of the places that are worth a small detour from tiny museums, homemade baking, and backcountry ghost towns, through to empty beaches, hydro dams and fascinating back country roads’ and hopes there will be something for everyone

Throughout the book he brings New Zealand history alive by weaving in stories about Māori and colonial history as he takes us to important landmarks.  

His book is a great incentive to pack our bags and follow in his footsteps.  There are so many attractions to choose from we are spoilt for choice!  I have already bookmarked some of my favourites. 

We have been to historic Russell several times but never visited the Putopu bird in the Russell Museum. This rather plain grey stuffed bird. which looks like a skinny upright weka, is the only example of this extinct bird. We’d never heard of it until now. Peter Janssen tells a fascinating story of how it arrived there. It is such historical anecdotes which make Worth A Detour North Island such a great read. 

In Auckland North, we are keen to visit tiny Parry Kauri Park as it is one of the few places where we will be able to see mature kauri trees. The track is entirely on boardwalks. It has so far avoided Kauri dieback disease, so it remains open. Here we will be able to pay homage to the majestic McKinney kauri, which is estimated to be 800 years old and is the largest kauri tree on the East Coast.

Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf is a great favourite of gold card holders as the ferry ride to get there and back is free for them. People flock there in droves to eat in local eateries, visit vineyards or go for a beach walk and a swim.  Not nearly as well known is the monthly afternoon concert in the Whittaker’s music museum. This would be a wonderful opportunity to hear the famous Bechstein Paderewski Grand Piano being played. Peter Janssen has a lovely story about how this grand piano came to be there.

In Hāwera, in Taranaki, for those who were rock and rollers in the sixties, the KD’s Elvis Presley Private Museum would be a great opportunity to admire memorabilia of Elvis the King and to reminisce about those good old times.

Duck Island is one of my favourite gourmet ice creams. In Hamilton East, Peter Janssen tells us, ‘You don’t need to look that hard to find Duck Island as you will easily spot the queue out the door and the crowds of people outside on the footpath munching on ice creams.’ I can’t wait to join them and sample some of their unique flavours like banana lemongrass and coconut, and cinnamon and smoked apple.

In Foxton (just a short detour off SH1), there is a sight not to be missed, a full-sized seventeenth-century Dutch windmill! After enjoying the sound and sight of windmill arms whirring in the wind, you should head for the café right next door to enjoy some traditional Dutch food and excellent coffee. Close by is the Dutch museum Te Awahau/ Niewe Stroom, focusing on Dutch immigration to New Zealand. Inside, amongst many others, there is a photograph on the wall of my parents arriving in Wellington with seven kids in tow.

We’ve had a lot of visitors over the summer, and I have happily suggested they should take a look at Worth A Detour North Island before planning the next leg of their journey. Making a few detours to find some of these hidden places would make their journey much more fascinating and enjoyable!  

Reviewer: Lyn Potter

White Cloud Books