Gerard's books

In 1906, at just 16 years of age, Angelina Moleta left the tiny volcanic island of Stromboli off Sicily to travel to an even remoter island on the other side of the world. From the age of eight she had been betrothed to her cousin, Vincenzo Moleta, who was now twice her age and taking her to a new life on D’Urville Island in New Zealand.
Facing the fierce tides and weather of this wild island on the edge of Cook Strait, and having to cope with loneliness, the incessant toil of a pioneer farm, and the bitterness of a developing family feud, Angelina found solace in an unlikely friendship with a high-born Maori woman, Wetekia Ruruku Elkington, who lived nearby. Together they shared their own struggles, their different cultures and their lack of English language; a process that awakened Angelina to her own inner strengths. Angelina and Vincenzo finally left D’Urville Island in 1946, and both died within a few months of each other in Wellington in 1954.
This is a remarkable story that movingly captures the struggles and triumphs of pioneering immigrant life in New Zealand.
OUT OF PRINT but coming soon

Swamp Fever is the fascinating tale of one man’s life as an alternative lifestyler in Golden Bay, northwest of Nelson. As a nineteen-year-old, Gerard Hindmarsh quit his public servant job as a cartographic cadet for the Department of Lands and Survey and bought a block of scrub-covered, swampy land at Tukurua near Collingwood. Gerard was part of the homesteading movement of the 1970s, embracing the hippy ideals of getting back to the land to live a more self-sufficient and sustainable lifestyle.
OUT OF PRINT

Kahawai means ‘strong in the water’. Long sought after by Maori, these beautiful, fighting fish are second only to snapper as New Zealand’s most caught recreational fish species. You can still readily catch kahawai from the shore and at tidal river mouths, with a bag limit of 20 fish and no minimum size, while out on the water ‘work-ups’, the feeding frenzies where huge numbers of these fish go wild chasing prey, are legend among fishers. Kahawai truly is the people’s fish, and this book is the complete guide for all New Zealand fishers, boaties, foodies and anyone else who appreciates and treasures our marine environment. OUT OF PRINT

Gerard Hindmarsh argues that New Zealand is lucky to have had, and still have, its fair share of people who choose to live out on the fringes of society. He believes these ‘outsiders’, in their love of a free and unhindered life, offer an important counterbalance to the high-pressured, commercialised and urban world that most of us inhabit. OUT OF PRINT

Golden Bay author Gerard Hindmarsh has been collecting stories from Kahurangi for well over 20 years, and this book weaves the best of them into a compelling blend of natural and social history. Kahurangi Calling describes many of the geological, botanical and ecological treasures that are found in Kahurangi and tells the stories of the fascinating characters who have travelled and lived here: explorers, miners, graziers, eelers, hermits, trampers and other adventurers. OUT OF PRINT

A compelling blend of natural and social history about an area of astonishing ecological complexity and its wonderfully rich and colourful human history. Gerard Hindmarsh tells the stories of the fascinating characters who have travelled and lived here, including early explorers, gold miners, flying crayfishers, early forest rangers, trampers and other adventurers. His stories are skilfully told and woven into the natural history of this captivating region, including geological, botanical and ecological treasures. OUT OF PRINT