Kawhia is located on the west coast roughly in King Country, roughly in the middle of New Zealand’s north island. Kawhia is home to iwi of the Tainui tribe and the local Marae overlooks a harbour which provides good fishing for everyone.

Flounder is a flat fish which is sweet and succulent enough to require nothing more than pan-frying in a little butter, with salt, pepper and squeeze of lemon. Kawhia flounder are much fatter than we generally purchase here in urban Auckland. We purchased ours from Gary Taylor of The Happy Flounder café. Gary provides fresh fish which he will happily cook for you any style.

Kawhia has a lot to offer, great fishing, harbour cruises, very friendly locals and horses wandering the streets. From our accommodation at Kawhia Camping Ground we should have taken a photo of one of the local neddies wandering down the main road, in and out of various properties cropping the lawns and wandering around the back under and around clothes lines. Nobody seemed to mind. The odd vehicle drove around him and as far as we saw he was loose the whole weekend we were in Kawhia – a good indication of how laid-back Kawhia is.

We discovered Kawhia during a tourism development project we undertook early in 2004. We also discovered www.traknpaddle.co.nz which re recommend for anyone wanting a spectacular bush experience.

Traknpaddle bush walk