Te Ngahere Iti, is Maori for The Little Forest. This part of the country is pure New Zealand at its finest. The house is located in unspoiled New Zealand forest at the tip of the North Island, providing a retreat to enjoy life as it used to be, and to become one with nature.

The eco-friendly home is surrounded by native trees and birds. See rare Wood Pigeons sitting in the trees outside your window and relax to the song of Tuis and the sounds of the forest. At night the crystal clear astronomical skies reveal one of the best views of the Milky Way you will see in the Southern Hemisphere. Free from light and air pollution, you feel as if you can touch the stars, especially when looking through the 10" high power telescope.

Gary and Asta Little welcome you into their home and will provide you with a genuine New Zealand forest experience.

Vacation at bed and breakfast accommodation in a sustainable energy hosted-home. Set in natural forest and wildlife surroundings, this energy efficient solar powered eco-home, provides a relaxed base for the usual Far North of Northland tourism ventures, as well as the much sought-after bushwalks involving casual or moderate fitness trekking and tramping. Spend your holiday at this bush covered property situated adjacent to the Herekino State Forest and venture out into the acclaimed hiking trails or take a guided trek around the open-space covenanted, pest controlled native forest of Te Ngahere Iti.

Discuss running or race walking with Gary, or search for New Zealand native orchids on the property.

Te Ngahere Iti is located in Diggers Valley just south of Ahipara Beach in the winterless north of New Zealand.

The property is NOT on the beaten path - in fact it is about as far away from the main drag that you can get, even in New Zealand. We are not going to say it is quick to get to us, but this is the factor that makes our place so appealing.

The property is situated adjacent to the Herekino State Forest and on a gravel road about 2 1/2 hours from Whangarei and 5 hours from Auckland. Ask a few friendly New Zealanders along the way and you will find it is easy to get here.
Through both a desire and the necessity created by the isolation of this home, a true Eco-Frendly home can be witnessed. No Power lines, No Phone lines, No Water - no services at all. None are linked to the house. All of these have been harnessed from nature. The sun, and a clever inverter provide 240v 50hz power. A satellite provides communication and the rain provides the drinking water.

If you are interested in Eco homes, then this alone will make a stay here an enjoyable experience.
This is regenerating NZ forest which is undergoing a programme to rid it of vermin and is now leading to the return of rare birds such as the Kiwi, Pigeon and Tui. Garys extensive knowledge of NZ plants and birds will keep you enthralled. A guided tour of the property highlights the many native orchids and other flora.

Hi,
I am Gary,
By now, you should have a good idea that I am passionate about the tiny native orchids on our property and the on-going conservation project that Asta and I devote most of our time to. You might also know that I have a major interest in race walking by way of coaching (runners too!) and am still keenly competitive. I hold a number of masters world records for race walking and try to keep as fit as I can when work at Te Ngahere Iti permits.

I was born in 1941 and grew up in Auckland, taking my first trip overseas when I was 18 years old when I went to Australia. After spending about six months seeing a little of the state of Victoria region, I ended up on a cattle station in Queensland for a further six months before returning to New Zealand to continue life in a rather non-eventful sort of way.

This carried on until 1964 when I ventured to Raoul Island in the Kermadec Islands group as a meteorological observer. This initially, was a short trip. About three weeks after arriving there, the whole party, plus a visiting ornithological group, had to be evacuated after the volcano erupted. Three weeks later, the powers that be decided that things were quiet enough for us to return, and so we went back and continued to do our thing as well as keeping an eye on the still-rumbling steam vents that abounded in the main central crater area. After 13 months at this address, I returned to the big smoke and spent the next year travelling around NZ as a relieving observer with the meteorological office.

Still with the met office in 1966, I decided to try the cooler climes of Campbell Island in the sub-Antarctic islands of NZ.. I spent seven months there, cooling my heels before returning home to Auckland again and within a couple of months, I married my first wife. Fairly normal family life carried on from here, with a son and a daughter to bring up until my wife passed away after 23 years of marriage.

A couple of months after my wife's passing, I was selected to represent New Zealand in the 1991 team to contest the World Race Walking Cup in San Jose, California, USA. Since then, I have had the chance to compete as a race walker in Mexico, USA (a couple of times more), Japan, and a few times in Australia. I have also been a national race walking champion and record holder in New Zealand.

After one of these trips overseas, to Mexico, I met Asta and thus began the next stage of my life which has now brought me to the place we call Te Ngahere Iti.

Cheers, I hope you will join us here. We have a lot to show you!

Hi, I am Asta
On my father's side, I am a second generation New Zealander and on my mother's side, fourth generation. I was born at Te Kopuru and lived my first 20 years in dairy country about 7 kilometres north of Dargaville.

My work with the then NZ Post and Telegraph, took me from Dargaville to Wellington. Shortly after arriving there, I took a position with the then Ministry of Works as a civil engineering technician in their Gracefield laboratories. I left that job to marry a Hamilton lad and moved to Raglan to raise a family, a son and two daughters. After the marriage breakdown, I moved to Auckland. My final employment before retiring to Te Ngahere Iti was with an Auckland based electricity retailer. It was during this period that Gary and I met, got married and eventually were in a position to purchase the right to caretake this very special piece of NZ.

My sporting interest was orienteering in which I achieved inconsistently but despite this, I loved this challenging sport. Unfortunately, there is no opportunity to participate in this sport locally. These days, I am keeping fit enough to take part in the occasional fun run and half marathon.

In my journey through life, I have always been interested in the bush. Perhaps an interest passed from my maternal grandfather who worked in the timber industry as a bushman. In my thirties, I spent several years working in a nursery that raised and sold (among other things) NZ native trees. So when we bought this property, I thought I knew all there was to know about NZ native forest. How wrong I was. I fast found that there is a lot more to the forest than the timber.

My current interests are, my garden, my grandchildren and our planet and their continuing good health.

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