There are no crystal balls or gypsy tents, just a well-built 38-year-old with blond tousled hair, dressed in a black shirt and pants, sporting his pendant and a silver bangle given to him by friends.
"I'm not some airy-fairy corner psychic," he says during a brief visit to Sydney, the tail end of a visit to his "spiritual home" in Alice Springs.
He is also promoting his autobiographical book, Walking in the Light.
"This is not easy to write about because I don't want people to think I'm a nut job," he says in the book, co-written with Margie Thomson.
Born in the North Island, the medium was thrust into the spotlight after displaying his psychic skills on the New Zealand crime investigation TV show, Sensing Murder.
He says it has taken almost a lifetime to come to terms with his "gift".
Cruickshank, who has "always seen dead people" says he began spotting the spirits of his Maori ancestors outside his bedroom window as a five-year-old.
A tattoo of a pod of dolphins on Cruickshank's right bicep is a permanent reminder of a near-drowning in his childhood, from which he believes he was rescued by the marine mammals, "in a spiritual sense".
He says his early visions were "brushed aside" by his parents, and that he was bullied at school and labelled a "homo" because of his sensitivity. As a result, he says he tried to suppress his spirituality.
A dad at 21, Cruickshank was working as a chef when he reached a "spiritual crisis" and attempted to take his own life at 27.
"My state of mind was such that I felt that death would bring me enlightenment and would be nothing but a relief to me," he writes in the book.
"...I took my Mauser 6.5mm, which would seriously blow my head off, and I loaded it and I put it in my mouth and was about the squeeze the trigger.
"I reached the hard point when an angel appeared in front of me and said, 'What about your son?'.
"So I'm still here." The breakdown forced him to come to terms with his spiritual skills, he says.
Cruickshank penned the book -- which also describes encounters with Jesus Christ -- to send a message that "it's OK to talk to yourself, it's OK to be different, it's OK to see things".
In three deep breaths the medium says he is able to step into the spirit world, where he "asks permission to read (from angels)." He says the spirits "manifest" before him and present themselves bathed in white light.
Cruickshank admits his claims are often subject to scepticism, and says that Australians are among the hardest nuts he's encountered in the course of doing live readings around the world.
"Most people couldn't even fathom that, seeing something that's not there, but that's been the story of my life.
"I talk about things that nobody else can see but I can.
"I see dead people and I've seen them all my life, why should I hide."
During his current visit Cruickshank hasn't done any public readings and his publicist also declined my request for a personal reading.
"It's a very physical, taxing exercise," she said in an email.
"He usually has to prepare for it with meditation, and his schedule for the day doesn't allow time."
* Walking in the Light by Kelvin Cruickshank published by Penguin is available now.
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