WORTH A DETOUR destinations with Peter Janssen

Photos by Josip Bojcic.

Sunday afternoons in our family always held the prospect of the 'Sunday Drive'. The destinations were always sketchy. A house under construction, anew bridge on a back road with stops to admire old buildings, short strolls to a lush view and plenty of interesting comment on the lives of people who lived along the way. A change of mind was always on the cards, along with the prospect of an ice cream. Underlying the Sunday Drive was to be open to the unexpected and unusual.

This has turned me into a compulsive nosey-parker, and I can’t resist a road untraveled. Researching my guidebooks I have travelled just about every road and visited every town and hamlet in New Zealand. I relish finding the more offbeat attractions, quirky places bypassed by most travellers and eccentric characters that have great stories to tell.

Many of the places are well known locally but missed by visitors short on time. Our bigger cities too have corners that remain unexplored. ‘Worth A Detour’ (North and South editions) are a varied collection of almost 800 places that I think are worth a small detour. There is something for everyone (I hope!) from tiny museums and ghost towns, through to empty beaches and fascinating back country roads. Some places are very small and run by volunteers who can only spare so much time and only open at limited times, while others open for visitors as required.

By its very nature a book of this type comes down to personal choice, but I trust through experience that those choices are mostly good ones. The first editions were first published in 2019 and sold over 25,000 copies.

Here is my pick of some of my favourite places and in the spirit of the ‘detour’ naturally we start in Southland and finish in Northland.

South Island

- Demolition World, Invercargill. Recycling meets Mad Max - Waikaia Bottle House, Southland. Come and see what you can do with 20,000 green wine bottles.

- The Beverly Clock, Dunedin. The world’s second longest scientific experiment.

- The Sluicings, Cromwell. A ruined,but mesmerising gold fields landscape.

- Matanaka Farm Buildings. NZ’s oldest farm buildings and the earliest use of corrugated iron in this country.

- The Geraldine Cheese Company, South Canterbury. The only company to make deer milk cheese.

- Janet Frame House, Ōamaru. Walk through the family home of one of our greatest writers.

- Dame Ngaio Marsh House, Christchurch. Go back in time to a more elegant era.

- Ōnawe Pa, Akaroa Harbour. A tale of drama and destruction.

- Glentunnel Library and Post Office. Miniature in design, huge on style.

- Watters Cottage, Rotherham. Nineteenth Irish architecture in North Canterbury.

- West Coast Washing Lines. A unique survivor of local design.

- Glenduan Topdressing Airstrip, Nelson. Marvellous views, but not for nervous flyers.

North Island

- Carlucci Land, Wellington. Mini golf gone truly mad!

- Our Lady of Lourdes, Kāpiti. This 1950s 14 metre Madonna is a rare religious monument.

- Norwegian Methodist Church, Mauriceville, Wairarapa. Stunning 19thcentury church perfectly preserved.

- Wop Wops Wetland Park Norsewood, Tararua. Jeff Bryan stylishly merges eels and wetland with Māori, Celtic and Scandinavian art.

- Ātea A Rangi Star Compass. The location and execution of the Māori compass is nothing short of perfect.

- Dome Theatre, Gisborne. This picture theatre and bar is an eclectic combination of 19th century elegance and 21st century style.

- Ladies Rest, Whanganui. New Zealand’s first public toilets for women opened in 1930.

- Wreck of the SS Waitangi, Pātea Taranaki. An irresistible rusting shipwreck on a sandy beach.

- Team Carrot Park, Ohakune. Idiotic, but happy humanoid vegetables join their friend the Big Carrot.

- Taketakerau, the Burial Tree, Hukutaia Domain, Ōpōtiki. A tapu pūriri tree estimated to be 2000 years old is the focal point of this collection of rare native plants.

- Morrinsville Cows Waikato. Where art and cows stylishly collide.

- Pokohino Beach, Coromandel. A hidden cove and a sea cave in a tranquil bush setting.

- Mazuran’s Wines, West Auckland. The last Dallie winemaker on Lincoln Road and specialising in Port.

- Smugglers Bay, Northland. A real smugglers hideout along with a stunning beach, an ancient pā and a WW2 lookout.

Worth a Detour: North Island / Worth a Detour: South Island by Peter Janssen $39.99 RRP each, White Cloud Books from Upstart Press. Out now.