Manakau PurePod

Stunning views

The Manakau PurePod is situated in a vast landscape with perfect views of the mighty Seaward Kaikōura Mountain Range (including Mt Manakau). It is only 20 minutes inland from Kaikōura and 2.5 hours north of Christchurch.

The Journey

Driving into the Manakau PurePod carpark is the start of your unique PurePod adventure as you ford small streams on your way to the secure carpark near the farmhouse.

From the carpark, you walk down a grove of trees and across a farm track, in the ever present company of the mighty Seaward Kaikōura Mountain Range. As you enter the bush pathway on your way to the PurePod, you will encounter a grove of kanuka trees. In the summer, as the kanuka flowers, the ever present hum of pollinators hovers overhead.

Kanuka is the endemic form of vegetation on this property as parts of the farm revert back to native bush. The tree is a crucial coloniser of land recovering from deforestation, acting as a nursery plant as other species begin to regrow. Over the past 20 years over 200 acres of this property have been allowed to revert to bush, protecting waterways and hillsides from potential erosion, as well as hosting one of the largest populations of the South Island Robin found anywhere in New Zealand.

Walking out of the bush you will catch just a glimpse of your PurePod as you push on uphill. All told the walk is around 900 metres or 10-15 minutes.

Overwhelming location

The PurePod sits on a spur in a paddock with kanuka trees for company and birds singing all day long in the nearby gullies. As you look out from the deck the vastness of the location is overwhelming. Seemingly close enough to touch, the Seaward Kaikōura range dominates the vista but you are surrounded by hills in all directions. North facing, the PurePod looks straight at Mt Fyffe, snow covered for much of the year, and the mighty Manakau mountain rising to over 2600 metres, the largest peak in the Seaward Kaikōura range.

Behind the PurePod, steep sided hills stretching to 500 metres high invite you to explore the marked trails. Take an extra day to explore and grow to understand this rugged, vast landscape. Include the optional picnic lunch with your booking, fill a bottle of the fresh tap water (sourced from a spring a couple of hundred metres above the PurePod) and wander up the track behind the PurePod to see the magnificent views.

Relish no cellphone signal

Of course, if such exploration is not quite what you desire, feel free to stretch out on the deck or in the shade nearby and enjoy a complete absence of people, traffic – even your cellphone will have no signal. Comfortable deck chairs are provided, as is the most comfortable bed we can find.

The PurePod has all the facilities you require including a fabulous shower, flush toilet, crisp linen, cooking and eating equipment including a hob and barbeque, tea coffee and milk; as well as an assortment of games, local reference books, a telescope and a whole lot of nothing to do!