A LONELY HABITATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19455, 11 October 1926, Page 14

A LONELY HABITATION.

DWELLER AT SPIRITS BAY. MOST NORTHERN BEAUTY SPOT. ENCAMPMENT OF RAUPO HUTS. The wild stretch of country between Capo Maria Vau Dieraen and Nortb Cape is one of tho loneliest and most inaccessible spots in New Zealand, yet is filled with an interest and rugged charm that can be found in no other portion of the country. Few people have been so far north. For the most part it is known only to a few struggling Maoris, a solitary station-holder and shipwrecked sailors who now and again are cast, against their will, upon the most inhospitable coast in the Dominion. Yet for those who love nature in its most unspoiled form this little stretch of coastline has a fascination all its own. The New Zealand Publicity Department saw in its jagged cliffs and sandy beaches an ideal source of cinematograph exploitation and put some of its most striking beauties on the film, with the result that a good idea of the magnificence of the scenery may be gained from the very fine film iti the Government series being shown this week at tho Majestic Theatre. Author's IciJe at Spirits Bay. For many years now, Mr. L. Keene, of Te Paki station, has been known as the most northern European settler in the Dominion, his station being only 12 miles from Cape Maria Van Diemen. Within recent months, however, a lone Aucklander lias gone to live in Spirits Bay, as far north as it is possible to go without going into the sea, as the departed spirits are supposed to do according to Maori mythology. The adventurous soul is Mr. Hector MacQuarrie, a graduate of Caius College, Cambridge, and until lately aide-de-camp and private secretary to Sir Cecil Rodwell, formerly Governor of Fiji. Mr. MacQuarrie, who was born in Auckland, is known, better abroad than in his own country, perhaps, as an author, his books including "Tahiti Days." With Mr. Keene, whose father owns tho place, and Mr. R. Mathews, a Ivaitaia sheepfarmer, Mr. MacQuarrie has built a raupo whare on the banks of a winding creek in Spirits Bay and there he has lived since May. The hut is adequately furnished and decorated with a bizarre effect. It is a self-contained apartment with all necessary cooking arrangements, a flower garden and a vegetable garden containing silver beet, tomatoes and lettuce. It is J the most northerly white man's house in New Zealand and probably the loneliest. A Magnificent Coastline. Perhaps it would be unfair to Mr. MacQuarrie to picture him as a morose hermit secreting himself away from the haunts of men. He is establishing, with the help of Mr. Keene. and Mr. Mathews, an encampment of raupo huts with tho object, he hopes, of attracting visitors who would enjoy a quiet holiday in the summer in a lonely, little-known corner of New Zealand.

"It is unknown to most people," writes Mr. MacQuarrie, "that the extreme northerly coast of New Zealand, that between Cape Maria and the North Cape, is not only wildly beautiful, but actually has a fringe of land of great fertility utterly unlike anything else I have seen north of Auckland, and remarkably like Norfolk Island. The dead-looking gum-land ends perhaps two miles back, being exchanged for gently rolling bills ending abruptly in steep cliffs. These, lulls, when they are cleared, are literally lawn-like in appearance, and the whole is relieved by pebblebottomed creeks charmingly fringed with native shrubs and ferns. "Spirits Bay— it is astonishing that people do not know it—is, in my opinion, one of the great beauty spots of New Zealand, if,not of the world. The climate along this fringe of coast is mild and often actually warm during the winter, for no wind except a northerly or north-easterly can reach the place The whole coast it is obviously not very long—is fifled with interest, and owing to hopeless communication, it remains unspoilt. Skeletons of Maoris, presumably, still lie about where the bones were picked, and odd bits of greenstone and old native tools are often found. The Reinga, of course forms part of tho coast. Fish may be caught in large quantities off the rocks, including kingfish, blue cod and even hapuku at one point.. Mr. MacQuarrie hopes to make something of a tourist resort <>f the place in the coming summer and, perhaps a winter resort. He and Messrs. Keene and Mathews have built- several more huts just recently and the intention is t.O add a store and lounge room with a dancing floor. Visitors will do their own cooking and there will be much riding and fishing and swimming. Mr. MacQuarrie has named his camp Pandora and hopes to attract those people, "rather rare souls in some ways, who will enjoy simplicity and the superb beauty around."