Horse (& human) heaven

NZPH’s breeding farm is located on Haupouri Station, southeast of Napier and Hastings in the Hawkes Bay province of New Zealand. Haupouri has five kilometres of Pacific Ocean coastline as its eastern neighbour, the holiday village of Ocean Beach to the south and Cape Kidnappers to the north.

We think Haupouri, with its fertile flats, rugged hills, miles of beaches and rolling Pacific Ocean, is horse heaven. We often joke that horses born on Haupouri must think they have been born and gone to heaven.

Hawkes Bay is one of the most varied and beautiful parts of New Zealand. The prevailing winds and weather come from the west in New Zealand and the North Island central mountain divide means Hawkes Bay is drier than the west and also boasts some of the longest sunshine hours in the country.

Hawkes Bay is known for beautiful beaches, wine, horticulture, pastoral farming, world famous Art-Deco buildings in Napier and of course horses. And the rugby team is pretty good too.

In this section of the web-site we provide regular features and articles on the region and hope you will come to agree that New Zealand, Hawkes Bay and Haupouri Station really are horse and human heaven.

Cape Kidnappers Gannet Colony

The Cape Kidnappers Gannet Reserve is an isolated 13 hectare reserve protected and managed by the New Zealand Department of Conservation.

There are two colonies in the reserve, the Plateau (or Saddle) colony and the Black Reef colony. Visitors may not enter the colonies but the Plateau colony especially can be viewed up close from the Plateau itself. The Black Reef colony can be viewed from the beach below.

The Australasian gannet

The Australasian gannet (known in Maori as takapu) is found only in coastal colonies around New Zealand and in southern Australia. The Cape Kidnappers colony has around 6,500 pairs of birds which makes it the largest and most easily viewed colony in the world.

Gannets live a long time – between 25 and 40 years – and after the age of 2 or 3 the Cape Kidnappers gannets spend almost all of their lives in the colony at Cape Kidnappers. While the great majority of the life of a Cape Kidnappers gannet is settled, the fist two years are anything but sedentary.

At just 4 months of age the Cape Kidnapper’s gannets set off across the 2,500 kilometres of the Tasman Sea and roam around the coast of Tasmania and Victoria in the southern part of Australia. Two or three years later they return and by the age of five they have settled down to more or less permanent nesting in the colony.

Cape Kidnappers

Cape Kidnappers was named by Captain James Cook who visited New Zealand in 1769, circumnavigating and mapping the country in the his sailing ship, Endeavour. The name refers to a actual kidnapping that took place when Cook’s vessel visited and traded with local Maori.

Maori canoes came out to trade with the British and when they left a Tahitian boy from the Endeavour was kept on board the canoes. Shots were fired and some Maori were killed in the fight that ensued. The boy swam back to the ship. Captain Cook named the prominent headline where this all took place Cape Kidnappers.

Access

The Cape Kidnappers gannet colony may be the most accessible mainland colony in the world but that doesn’t mean it is just around the corner. Getting to the colony however is part of the attraction. Visitors can either walk along the beach or take one of a variety of commercial transport options including four-wheel drive motorbikes and SUVs.

In either case the tide needs to be right. The walk takes about five hours there and back and the tide needs to be at least half way out and going out as you set off.

The Plateau colony is on private land. Clear access is provided but visitors are requested not to leave the marked areas and not to disturb stock.

The best time of year to visit

The best time of year to visit the colony is from the beginning of November to the end of February. Nesting gets underway from mid-September and finished in mid-December. The first chicks hatch in early November and the migration to Australia occurs before the end of May.

The colony is closed to public access between July and October.