Argentinian couple Lucia Victoria and Santiago Valentin at the Good Neighbours Food Truck on Great Barrier Island. Photo / Phil Taylor
On Great Barrier Island, everyone knows your name.
“Is she back on the bongos again tonight?” Grinning, the guy nods towards a woman ordering olives and an empanada from the food truck next door. That’d be me.
The previous evening, I’d been on the other side of Great Barrier Island, grooving along to a live gig at The Currach, Aotea’s famous Irish pub. Halfway through the set, a local who’d been playing back-up decided he needed a drinks break and passed his drum to me.
I’m not sure I was a raging success (so far, they haven’t invited me back) but by the next day, my notoriety had obviously spread. On an island as remote and sparsely populated as Great Barrier, anonymity is a concept you surrender by stepping ashore.
“If you really were a person who didn’t want everyone knowing your business, you probably wouldn’t live here,” an islander later tells me. She’s originally from the UK and says her young daughter thinks it’s getting too busy if they see more than a couple of cars on the road.
“But any negatives don’t nearly touch the positives about a close-knit community, you know? It’s a magical place.”
Even so, I’m somewhat taken aback to be recognised after such a brief moment of fame when my husband and I stop by for a cold one at Aotea Brewing – still damp from a soak at the Kaitoke Hot Springs, where we’d had the thermal water holes all to ourselves.
Housed in a converted shipping container on a farm paddock across from Medlands Beach, the solar-powered brewery operates on a zero-waste philosophy, serving craft beer fresh from the tap.
Since it opened for business in late 2019 (right on the cusp of Covid), more boutique enterprises have mushroomed at the Mason Rd Hub.
In another refurbished container, Aotea Roast produces small-batch, artisan coffee beans and provides the espresso for Aotea Brewing’s Daily Grind, a rich coffee stout. Argentinian couple Lucia Victoria and Santiago Valentin run the Good Neighbours Food Truck, where I bought my empanada.
Outdoor tables overlook a wetland restoration project. The Motu Community Nursery, which opened this year, specialises in native plants and has a “garden bar” in the middle of it, with a leaner table surrounded by seedlings.
Apparently, there are plans to develop walkways and accommodation on the ridge. On summer afternoons, there’s often live music. Children (and dogs) are welcome.
“Who’d have thought we’d sit in the swamp and have a really good feed,” jokes a woman who’s popped by for a drink after work.
Behind the bar, the brewery’s refillery manager, Barry “Baz” Illingworth, is rocking a bucket hat. He and his wife bought a bach on the Barrier, then moved over permanently a few years ago.
“I love meeting new people,” he says, pouring a glass of Aotea’s signature Solar Charged American Pale Ale, as Auckland band the RVMES play on the stereo.
“Traditionally, long-time locals tend to be a bit gruff about tourists. But everybody relies on them, so it’s kind of a bittersweet thing.”
Lucia and Santiago opened the food truck last summer, choosing the name Good Neighbours to celebrate the Barrier’s community spirit.
“Good neighbours – I don’t think anyone would survive here on the island without them,” says Lucia, who also teaches yoga at the Claris Art Gallery.
She and Santiago met on Waiheke Island, although they’re both from Buenos Aires and discovered they once lived only a few blocks away from each other there.
Both the brewery and the food truck are open for extended summer hours but still close at 6pm to avoid competing with other venues, like the Irish pub, that do their business at night. And that’s how good neighbours become good friends.
The Currach is housed in a 120-year-old building in Tryphena that was one of the original homesteads for the Blackwell family, early pioneers who settled on Aotea in the 1860s and introduced beekeeping to the island. Former Black Fern and Blues lock, Eloise Blackwell, is among their descendants.
The pub – “Open every day except the day we are closed which is Wednesday” – is another great spot for good food and live music, including a Thursday open-mic night. On January 31, Op Shop’s Jason Kerrison is playing an acoustic set.
There’s no public transport on the island, which is deceptively large. Renting a car, we drive from Cape Barrier, on the southernmost tip, to beyond Port Fitzroy on the northwest coast.
Sadly, we arrive too late for the “famous breakfast baps” at Karaka Bay Lodge, where a waterfront cafe opens to the public on Saturday mornings. The kitchen closes at 11.30am.
We break the return trip with a hike to Windy Canyon, a dramatic wind tunnel shaped into the rock. Above, there’s a spectacular view from the lookout spot, on one of the highest stretches of the island.
A certified Dark Sky Sanctuary, Aotea has no streetlights and at night, the sky is hooded with stars.
Ask Lucia what she loves about life on the Barrier and the word she uses is freedom. “And realising how small you are amongst all this nature.”
Joanna Wane is an award-winning senior lifestyle writer with a special interest in social issues and the arts.