All of us here at NZ4WD were saddened recently to hear of the death of Ernie Matthews of Taranaki.
Thirteen years ago NZ4WD did an article on Ernie after his property was featured in the book 4WD North Island: 80 Off Road Adventures.
The book listed the track on Ernie’s property deep in the Moeawatea Valley, Taranaki, at no. 50 and the author rated it as “nothing special” but then the editor of NZ4WD found that the man who owned it was special indeed.
Ernie grew up in the area and after World War 2 returned there and simply “went bush”. In 1950 the 24-year-old Ernie bought the property nestled at the very end of the Moeawatea Valley road, 40km northeast of Waverley in the depths of south Taranaki and stepped away from the world to live life on his own terms.
The rugged and remote piece of land was Ernie’s first farm and when Munro asked him why he chose it, Ernie simply replied “A man’s got to have something difficult to do.”
And difficult it was.
Ernie never had electricity, although he initially had plans to generate electricity from a small waterfall on a stream near his house, and it was a 32km round trip to get to his mailbox. On foot, that is, because Ernie never had much truck for mechanical things either.
In the early days Ernie kept in touch with the outside world via a two-way ham radio, but got rid of it - too much chatter - and the old telephone was abandoned long before that. Ernie would listen to the radio to keep up on the state of play in the rest of the world, but had no time for television, saying, “I think it’s bad for people. It’s messing up their imagination!”
Despite his aversion to the outside world, Ernie was never short of visitors, thanks to the steady flow of hunters, hikers and, of course 4WDers to the area and Ernie’s property. He started keeping a visitors book in 1963 and filled several in the following years.
Over the years Ernie bought up neighbouring farms as they became available, increasing his isolation and also acquiring him a significant piece of New Zealand history - the cottage of legendary soldier, writer, poet, translator, industrialist and visionary Rewi Alley.
Alley was a Sinophile - a lover of all things Chinese - and one of this country’s most distinguished sons. Living in China for 66 years - after walking away from the Taranaki farm in 1927, only to come back to New Zealand for the occasional visit - Alley was one of the founding members of the “Gung Ho” cooperatives, set up to organise unemployed workers and refugees in order to increase production to support the Chinese resistance to the Japanese invasion of 1931.
Alley’s cottage on Ernie’s land had fallen into disrepair, but was rescued from collapse in 1988 by heritage champion David Harre, who obtained a grant from the government for its restoration.
Ernie would later briefly live in the restored cottage after the one he built himself burned down in 2004. Ernie, 78 at the time, lost everything but, despite his isolation, the local community rallied around him and he was able to stay on his beloved farm.

Ernie Matthews passed away on May 4. He was 85-years-old and lived the vast majority of those years on his remote property in the Moeawatea Valley, on his own terms.