TRAVEL (D’URVILLE ISLAND)
NATURE AND HISTORY COMBINE ON
D’URVILLE ISLAND Words by John Bishop
WAKING
up the first morning our tour party was at the Wilderness Lodge on D’Urville Island I looked out the window to see a family of four weka feeding on the lawn. They were both oblivious to the humans peering at them and unafraid. Later, they were curious enough to approach, no doubt looking for a feed. They are part of the joys of seeing wildlife in the wild. On the five days I was on the island and the surrounding waters, we saw king shags, cormorants at sea, seals on rocks, saw and heard robins, kakas and tuis on land, ate plenty of fish, but didn’t spot any deer although they are on the island. D’Urville is free of possums and rats but there are stoats and their eradication is controversial because some property owners won’t have strangers of any kind walking across their land. Wilderness Lodge in Catherine Cove set in 200 hectares of regenerated bush is the major accommodation with beach front units and two large baches. Units are clean and comfortable but it’s not a luxury stay. Meals are provided in the licensed café where Cathy Tatnell, a chef who previously had charge of the kitchen at a Nelson vineyard, presides. Cathy’s partner Craig operates a water taxi and does fishing charters. They’ve been here for two years and chose the life because they wanted a business where they could work together. I am here with Driftwood Ecotours, 12 |
issue 34 • autumn 2022
a Kaikoura based tour operator started in 2004 by Will Parsons who’d previously been a farmer around Blenheim, and his wife Rose whose family connections to the area go back to the 1860s. D’Urville Island is now their most popular tour and Will tells me he has done it 30-40 times now. “That kickstarted my passion,” but it was his wife Rose’s idea to turn his passion into a business. “We realized that people needed to know about the lagoon and the beauty it contained. “We started bespoke tours with
one or two people – almost all international tourists passing through the area who took time to go on an interesting walk with us.” Some time later, and now based in Kaikoura, they started Driftwood Ecotours which operate across New Zealand. D’Urville Island was named by the French explorer, Jules Dumont D’Urville who made two explorations around parts of New Zealand in the 1820s and 1830s – after Cook but before we were claimed as a British colony. It’s about 30 kms long and 10kms
