The Chatham archipelago, about 800km east of the South Island, is 45 minutes ahead of New Zealand. Actually they are on the other side of the international date line, but that’s been shifted to bulge around the islands so they share the same date as the rest of the country instead of being the day before!
But clock time is not the only difference - you’ll very likely experience "island time" before you even leave New Zealand.
Air Chatham, virtually the only way to get to the island, changes its departure times often. Ours changed four times before we left, and our early morning return flight was in doubt until late in the afternoon. A few days before our visit, planes had not been able to land for about three days. Not surprising perhaps, as Rekohu, the Moriori name for Chatham Island, means "misty skies".
There’s an urban myth that accommodation providers don’t strip the beds of departing guests until their plane has actually taken off. Occasionally a plane lands with new visitors but is prevented from taking off again with those intending to depart, leaving hosts scratching their heads about how to put everyone up.
"You can’t ask strangers to top and tail or double bunk," says the dynamic and extremely capable Toni Croon with a laugh. A former jockey, she owns Hotel Chatham on the waterfront, runs several other accommodation options, rental vehicles and many of the tours.
Visitors have to be flexible - itineraries depend on the weather, with guides deciding each day which sites they will visit.
If anyone in New Zealand manages to listen to the radio weather forecast for the Chathams, they will know that it’s usually cloudy with showers. However, our week-long trip in late November last year was mostly sunny with occasional morning or nighttime showers - and the constant sea breeze disguises the ferocity of the sun.
There’s a sense of isolation on these islands, only two of which are inhabited - most are large rocks, even if forested and inhabited by birds.
Lone trees twisted and shorn by the constant wind, and the odd vehicle quietly rusting in neglected paddocks being overtaken by gorse add to the sense of remoteness.
Cattle and sheep graze in the lusher paddocks, but farming costs are high because there is no abattoir on the island and animals have to be shipped to the mainland for killing and processing.
Chatham Island itself, 920sq km, has a varied landscape. A few volcanic peaks, none higher than 294m, formed underwater millions of years ago, stand proud of the rolling grassy land in the northwest.
The south of the island is hillier with vertiginous coastal cliffs. Elsewhere, golden beaches and rocky shores with seal colonies, roosting shags and other birds, surround the island. All are privately owned and require permission to visit.
The Chathams are known for their seafood and we feasted on crayfish, blue cod, hapuka and paua. The fishing boom of the 1970s based in Kaingaroa on the north coast depleted crayfish stocks and the little town settled back into a sleepy settlement with a rickety wharf and the club where a few locals turned up for a beer and smoke when it opened about 4pm.
Most residents grow their own vegetables, as fresh produce is expensive, imported by air when there is space. In fact, almost everything is expensive here, from vehicles to electricity, which is produced by diesel generation. Remnants of a wind farm, bankrupt before it was even finished 10 years ago, stands motionless and lonely in an empty paddock.
Life is casual - there’s often no sign of people, though when we were there a three-day tangi may have accounted for some of that. Teenagers are notably absent, away at boarding school in New Zealand. There are three primary schools, two with only a handful of pupils. The largest, with fewer than 50 pupils, is at Te One about 5km from the main settlement of Waitangi, where there’s a wharf, hotel, medical centre, store, museum, police station and bank.
The bank is open one day a week but you have to take pot luck on opening hours at the cafe next door or the gift shop down the road.
Mobile and fast broadband services were introduced only in 2021.
Nunuku’s cave in a limestone outcrop on the western shores of Te Whanga lagoon is covered with ancient carvings of seals, but apart from some shellfish middens and some stone tools in the museum there are few other prehistoric remains.
Big podocarps like totara or rimu are absent from these islands that only emerged from the ocean about 3 million years ago.
If given shelter, you can grow almost anything here, says Lois Croon, who, with her husband, Val, has developed the remarkable Admiral Farm Garden where they love entertaining and showing visitors their gardens. The weather may be cool and often cloudy but droughts, frost and snow are rare. Partly restored native plantings and wetlands and partly a series of sheltered "rooms", their garden includes an orchard with figs, tamarillo and kiwifruit as well as apples and pears, a big vegetable garden sometimes raided by their daughter, Toni’s, chefs at the hotel when supplies run low, and many exotic flowers and other plants. As the name suggests, Chatham Island admiral butterflies flutter around.
It’s one of many colourful natives - there are also mauve swamp asters, purple keketerehe tree daisies and bright yellow rautini, also known as the Chatham Island Christmas tree. Leaves are often fleshier and plants bigger, like the large flax with brighter red flowers than the regular flax found in New Zealand.
Moa, kiwi and other flightless birds, including weka, never managed to make it across the sea from New Zealand in prehistoric times. On Chatham Island we heard few native birds except the occasional piwakawaka and gulls and other seabirds round the shore, mainly because there are only small patches of native bush left. However, much replanting is under way and larger reserves remain in the south and on offshore islands.
In a southern reserve we saw a parea, a Chatham Island pigeon that was bigger and much blacker than any I’d seen before. It’s now regarded as a different species from its mainland counterpart. Only 40 individuals were left in 1990 but numbers increased to more than 200 a decade later.
Te Whanga Lagoon is home to black swans, ducks and other water birds.
Flying boats bringing mail and passengers after World War 2 used to alight there. But in 1959 a Sunderland flying boat was damaged by hitting something in the lagoon. Now its overwhelmingly gigantic fuselage is being restored on Muirson’s farm nearby.
It’s worth taking a fishing trip to see some of them. Climbing these cliffs to forage for albatross eggs and chicks was a rite of passage for young Moriori men in past centuries. Now, of course the birds are protected.
If you go:
Air Chatham flies from Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland weekly. If you are taking a connecting flight it’s worth paying extra for a flexi ticket. Insurance should cover an extra night or two’s accommodation if necessary. The Chathams is not a budget destination.
It’s essential to book accommodation ahead as there’s no public transport on the island. Camping is not allowed.
Your accommodation hosts will arrange to pick you up, tours, car hire and permissions to visit on private property, which is everywhere.
There are few places to eat except the hotel, so your hosts usually also provide food. Otherwise there’s a general store in Waitangi.
Be flexible - flights to Pitt Island, fishing trips and other visits tend to depend on weather.
Doc has an online brochure of walks, but the most useful guide book is Discover and Explore the Chatham Islands by Cherry Lawrie and Jocelyn Powell (Deerubbin Press).
