When I started researching NZ cryptids, my plan was to produce only one episode. I honestly was unaware of how many cryptids NZ had, apart from the Taniwha, that pretty much every single New Zealander has at least heard of, in one capacity or another. So I was really shocked to discover how many we have, and I realized that one episode would not do them justice in the least. I also learned that some of our cryptids have much in common with many others worldwide.

Throughout the world there are stories and legends of huge, hairy, ape-like creatures that have persisted over the centuries, through retellings of cultural myths and legends, and of actual reported sightings of such creatures. These beings go by many different names. In North America, they are called Sasquatch, or the more common name of Bigfoot. Across the ditch in Aussie, they are called the Yowie. In parts of Asia and the Himalayans they are call the Yeti, or the Meh Teh…. In Mongolia they are called the Almas. In Sumatra the Orang Pendek. In China, the Yeren. In the jungles of South America they are called the Mapingauri. On the podcast website www.walkingtheshadowlands.com you can see a link to a page that has a huge list of names for this creature.  So you can see that this being goes by many, many names throughout the world.

What I did not know in my research and what really shocked me, was that here in little ole, geographically isolated New Zealand we have our very own version of the Big foot. Here he goes by numerous names, dependent on where in the country he is located. Some of these names are The Moehau Man, Maero, Matau, Tuuhourangi, Taongina, Rapuwai, and sometimes in the 1800’s by the Europeans,  the Maori gorilla .

Yet this should really come as no surprise considering our beautiful country here was one of the last major landmasses to be settled by humans. So in addition to its beautiful soaring mountains, our pristine beaches and rivers, and our ecological diversity that has evolved in large part, due to our remoteness and long isolation from the rest of the world… that there are still unexplored and many untamed regions in our beautiful islands that absolutely hold mystery and undiscovered life. So why should it be any surprise that in hidden, and well isolated spots around New Zealand, we could find our Rapuwai communities?  Considering they are found through out the world. Why should we be any different?

I so I did delve deeper into this subject and in my research discovered a number of people in NZ who actually research this. I tried to approach them all to participate in this episode.  One flatly refused to have anything to do with my show and was very curt. One whose emails kept bouncing back, and another gentleman who I was delighted to find, returned my emails and questions about his personal experiences with this creature. He also agreed to share his experiences with us all. He will be coming up a little later in this episode. But first a little history on this creature in NZ and the areas where these can be found…. Let’s begin our journey into this part of New Zealand’s shadowlands….

Since the Maori arrived in NZ on their great canoes, they have been aware of the Rapuwai…. And in fact, would avoid many different regions of NZ, because they knew that those areas were the homes of these beings, and that not all of these beings were benevolent. That in fact there were some who would capture and kill the unwary warrior.

The Maori that lived in the regions where these creatures were to be found, lived in terror of them for the most part, and many of their legends have these Rapuwai, attacking and killing any poor, unfortunate soul who happened to cross path with them. Unprovoked attacks, displays of threatening behaviour – such as rock throwing, or the uprooting and throwing of logs, and extremely loud vocalisations. These are commonalities in historical reports from the local Maori of the behaviour of this being. And in fact, are commonalities in reported experiences even today. So the iwi or tribes local to these specific areas, learned very quickly to stay away from the areas where they lurked. But the Europeans who colonised this country also had dealings with this cryptid as well, and there are a number of historical newspaper accounts.

The area around New Zealand’s Porter’s Creek, in the Mt Richmond forest park  – in the South Island of NZ became the scene for a bizarre series of sightings  in the latter part of 1870. In these reported sightings the creature was described as some sort of gorilla-like creature. It was described as being around 5 feet tall, with sparse, scraggly hair covering its body, a tuft of hair on the top of the head, and with a pair of visible “tusks” sprouting from each side of the head or from the mouth depending on the report. This creature became know as the “Maori Gorilla”

It was reported as being seen both on the shores of the creek and also on occasion wading through the water. According to reports published starting in September, 1870 in the Thames Advisor, the creature was apparently well-known by the native Maori people, who referred to it as a tupuna, or “ancestor.” The Maori Gorilla was said to eat a wide variety of foods, including potatoes, pie crust, and nuts. The newspapers at the time speculated that it could be “the missing link” or some sort of primitive form of human ancestor, and there was a great amount of interest expressed in tracking it down and capturing whatever it was.

These sighting became frequently reported on in various newspapers at the time, including the New Zealand Herald, the West Coast Times, the Auckland Star, and the Thames Advisor.  In late September of 1870, the Thames Advisor ran an article which was subsequently picked up by several other publications claiming that the creature had been caught in a swamp near Porter’s Creek with the use of hunting dogs. The article claimed that the creature had been captured and then its hands and legs tied up. The paper’s description of this being, is very racially insensitive, and to me extremely offensive, so I am not going to read it out.

After this report, the trail sort of goes cold and in fact the Thames Advisor backtracks on its initial reporting of the story. So we are left wondering if it was all in fact a hoax?

So what does the Moehau man look like? There are many different descriptions of this creature, and with some of the different names come slightly different descriptions.

The Moehau

Has been described as “Terrible creatures, half man, half animal”, with a very aggressive temperament, they apparently were only too happy to massacre and eat anyone that strayed into their domain. As tall as a man, completely hair covered, with marginally ape-like facial features. The primary difference from human appearance being the extremely long fingers, tipped with sharp talons, capable of tearing apart the toughest prey.

The Toangina

These were greatly feared by the population of the lower Wanganui River as they were said to viciously attack any fishermen who strayed into their territory. This vicious behaviour however seems to have abated in more modern encounters as the beasts in most instances flee on sight of humans. However, they have been seen as lately as merely 25 years past, recounted in the witnesses own words later on in this episode. She described him as being very tall, with black fur.

The Rapuai

These are believed, from legend, to be able to crush any strong Maori warrior with ease employing their large powerful hands. They are said to be tool-producing beasts using wood and stone, the articles crafted are said to resemble those produced by Homo erectus hominids. These are gigantic, but slow clumsy beings with a really strong muscular stature.

The Matau

These are described as being ape like but 3m tall.

So basically these different beings can be put into two catagories, those that are the stature of an ordinary human such as the Moehau, the Maero. That those that are extremely tall or of a giant stature, being the Matau, the Tuuhourangi, the Rapuwai, and the Toangina

Where are they found in NZ?

So where precisely in NZ are these cryptids reportedly found? They are found all over NZ in fact,  from the Coromandel region on the East Coast of the North Island of NZ… predominately in the Moehau Mountain range, from whence one of it’s name derives, but in fact all of the Coromandel Ranges. They are also thought to inhabit both Mounts Tongariro and Ruapehu, the Karangahake Gorge. The Martha Mine Region, in Waihi, again on the East Coast of the North Island. The Waikaremoana region in the Urewera Ranges. In the Heapy River of the Northwest, Nelson State Forest Park. The Kaikoura Mountains, Fiordland National Park. They are said to be very common in the Haasts Pass area of the South Island, particularly around the Haast River. Also Lake Wakatipu in Central Otago, of the South Island, in the Marlborough District of the South Island. And in the North Island again, in the lower Waikato river region, and along the banks of the Whanganui river, as evidenced by this experience witnessed by a member of my Walking the Shadowlands Facebook group.

One of the members of my Walking the Shadowlands FB group had an experience twenty-five years ago, when she, her Mum and her Uncle all saw a Moehau man on the banks of the Whanganui river. She has requested to remain anonymous, so I will not identify her, but this was her experience, in her own words.

Whanganui Experience

I remember when I was about six…. Must have been about six or five, we went for a school trip. We went…. I used to go to a little school near the Whanganui River. And we went for a school trip on the riverboat, to go and see the bridge to nowhere, cause it’s a pretty long walk inland, and it’s only half an hour from the river. And at the time my uncle, he was running a business with the river boats, so he took our school up there. School was only about ten kids, and so it wasn’t like…. You know? Thousands of kids trying to take them up a river.

Well anyways, we went up there and I dunno…. I just had this weird, eerie feeling, like someone was watching me. And I kept on saying to Mum, cause Mum came, and I kept on saying to Mum: “Mum there’s someone in the trees watching! I can feel them! I can’t see them, but I can feel them watching.” And Mum’s like don’t be silly – ‘cause, you don’t want to scare your kids – you know? She totally believed me though. I could see that she believed me. I’m pretty sure that she could feel it too. And, I kept on saying to my Uncle, there’s somebody in the trees watching, and he goes yeah, nah, don’t worry about it. It’s fine. It’s just in the trees.

Well anyways, we went up to the bridge to nowhere and it was fine when we got off the boat and went up and had a look at the bridge to nowhere. It’s really beautiful up there, I totally recommend going to have a look. Well anyways, we were on our way up [stream], we were back on the river boat. I could feel this thing watching, I could see it sort of like running in the trees, following the boat. Following the boat down, ‘cause, we were going really slowly cause it was in the middle of the summer time and it…. And so the river was quite low and the bottom of the boat was scraping along the rapids. So we were going really slowly, so as not to punch a hole in the bottom of the boat.

Well any ways, I could see this hairy, gorilla looking thing running along…. And, it was black. And I dunno, I just felt really uncomfortable about it, like I just didn’t want to stop. We just…. We couldn’t stop, and I kept on telling Uncle, and I was holding onto him and squeezing him for dear life! I said to him, you can’t stop this boat, and we got a bit stuck on a rapid, and I said: “Don’t stop! Don’t stop!” I was freaking out. And this thing was standing there, just looking at us, and we got the boat going…. And it was just absolutely, truly terrifying and my Uncle saw it. My Mother saw it. I don’t know about anybody else, I don’t think they saw it, but it…. Yeah it was only because I could see it, and I noticed it…. And it was…. I dunno, it just felt so freaky, it was….

I didn’t like it. I didn’t like its energy. I didn’t like how, they way it was running after us…. Yeah it just felt like that it was defending something and it just really didn’t want us to be there. Yeah. It was really tall…. Like the tallest person whom I know, he was 6 foot taller. It was taller than them, from what I could see, from what I remember…. And, I dunno…. I just remember him – It had like, black fur…. And, I don’t really remember much more. I don’t really remember its face. I was just a little kid. I just remember being…. Just the feelings I had about it, being I was actually really terrified and I didn’t want it to come anywhere close to me.

Here are some other reported sightings over the years…

Evidence

• In 1882, a gold miner in the Coromandel Ranges in the North Island of NZ was found headlessand his body partly devoured in the region, and a woman in the same area, at around the same time had been kidnapped. Her body was discovered later with her neck apparently twisted with great force killing her.
• In 1903 some very large, man-like footprints were found in the beautiful Karangahake Gorge, in the Coromandel region of the North Island of NZ.
• In 1969 an Australian tourist reported seeing the creature as she bush-walked in the region in 1969. She described it as being much like a gorilla.
• In 1970 another party of campers had to abandon their camp as a 2m tall man beast assailed them screaming loudly and hurling rocks at the camp.
• In 1971 footprints were located on snow-covered ground and led into a zone of bush on a hillside, found by a park ranger in the same area as the previous ones.
• In 1972 a hunter in the Coromandel ranges watched a naked, hairy man beast about 2m tall work its way through the scrub on the other side of a gully, upon reaching the place the creature had been transversing footprints were found.
• Again In 1972 another sighting was made by two pig hunters, who said they saw a large creature approximately 150m away from them. When they reached the place the animal had been, all they found were human-type footprints 35cm long.
• In 1983 in the Heaphy River area that runs through the Kahurangi National Park in the South Island of New Zealand, and is part of a famous NZ bush walking track – more footprints were discovered by a hunter in the region. These footprints at that stage when they were discovered could have been no more than an hour old.
• In 1991 some very spooked campers, who where roughing it in the Cameron mountains, in the very remote Fiordland region of the South Island of NZ, woke one morning to discover very massive man-like foot prints scatter around their camp. This spooked the so badly – which would only be a natural reaction, that they all packed up and left the region.
• An undated sighting was reported in the Sunday News, newspaper. Stating that an occupier of the Lake Mahinapua Pub –  which is located on the wild, west coast of New Zealand’s South Island, near the town of Hokitika, had been having his vegetable garden raided regularly. The offender was exposed when a man beast was witnessed dashing to the protection of the bush with an arm load of silverbeet (a green leafy vegetable).

And more recently my guest Marc Coppell has seen these footprints for himself, as well as having other audible evidence of the Moehau man.

Interview with Marc Coppell

Marianne: Hi Marc, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with my listeners and I about your experiences Please tell us how you came into this particular field?

Marc: Ok, well – I ‘ve had a quite long life, involved with very strange paranormal phenomena. And it started even from when I was a young kid.  I would see these shadow – uh…. shadow people, and it scared the hell out of the dogs. And strange things like this.

I had experiences with people who had passed on, that I didn’t know about and somehow was verified through somebody else’s…. Some other way…. And, I actually went over to America in my twenties. I did some schooling over there. I wrote a paper on Near Death Experiences when I was going to college over there, of course over there you do multiple subjects before you get into your major area of study.

And I spent most of my time in America, was mostly in Los Vegas. They call it sin city, it’s a very hot place, if any one’s been over there. It’s like the Australian desert in the summertime, very hot! Now, I had some strange things happen when I was over there. I was out prospecting in the Southern Nevada desert in 2013, early January, and I discovered that there was this craft that flew right in front of me! In fact, I had this impression to pull over, I nearly had an accident! I pulled over and I just went with this impression. I pulled over ‘cause, I was prospecting you know and I had all my gear, my metal detector, my bag, my bucket all that kind of stuff.

I was getting up and down these rocky ravines….and right in front of me, I see this metallic, oblong, silent – some sort of craft, that was completely silent. Went straight in front of me, and I just stopped and stared at it. I knew I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough. ‘Cause, I had a camera in the back pocket of my bag. So I just stared at it, and it went along, and went down. It was only up in the air for a few seconds.

I started panting and hyperventilating. I couldn’t believe what I saw! I mean, I had seen other weird stuff, but to see something in one o’clock – I think it was one o’clock in the afternoon, I can’t remember. But it was broad daylight, pretty much.

And so, I raced over to the area where I thought it landed. I couldn’t find it. So I don’t know what happened to it. But then, I was heading out, I noticed when I parked – where my car was parked over on the side, there was another vehicle that was blocking the stony road. This was a remote desert area that has some gold mining history to it. Kind of like our Moehau man, some of the gold mining areas over there.

 But, anyway I get back by my car – not quite there and I notice this other car pulls up to leave the area, and these two tall strange individuals get out of the car – seemingly identically dressed. Tan hats, with the neck coverings, and they approached my parked car. I wasn’t in my car, and they couldn’t see me. They walked up to the windows of my car and started looking in before I left, and I thought that was a little….pretty weird, you know? Considering what I had just seen. Anyway, I left and went to the local railroad casino, because I was pretty freaked out, and I was like oh man, I really need to calm myself down…. I mean, I’ve heard about UFO’s, but to see one just like this. And, so I joined Los Vegas UFO hunters soon after that. I mean I had already been involved in paranormal investigating before this, and so to have a close encounter with a UFO and possible…. Other things on the ground, I can’t say, I can’t say yes or no if they were associated with whatever that was? So anyway, I would go out sky watching with the Los Vegas, UFO hunters and rub shoulders with them, trying to figure out well what happened? What happened to me? What was that? I later went to…. during my research, I went over to Skinwalker ranch, Utah. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Skinwalker ranch?

Yes, I just did an episode on Skinwalkers actually.

Oh Skinwalkers, oh yes! Well, as they are known by the Navajo tribe. But, I had gone over to Skinwalker ranch, which has a bevy of paranormal activity. In fact, the rancher, his wife, and their family were terrified, after two years being on this ranch. Seeing various UFO craft, cattle mutilations, things that looked like big foot, their animals went missing. Some of their animals got mutilated. Some of the animals just disappeared completely.

And Robert Bigelow, I believe he actually brought the property off this rancher, to study it. Now, Robert Bigelow is an aerospace entrepreneur, he has a space station circling the earth. And so he conducted a serious, scientific study with biologists and physicists, veterinarians, pretty much covering all the scientific fields of study. He had the some PHD level scientists that study all this going on. And they indeed…. Some of the stuff that happened to them – it was always one step ahead of them, as reported by George Knapp. A KLS investigative reporter. He wrote a book co-authored with Colin Callahar, who was one of the senior scientists, who was running the study. And so, it was very interesting what went on there.

But anyway, we had dogs set upon us when we would be by the front gate, it’s guarded – armed security. It, it has an infamous history, not only with the people in the area, many people have seen the UFO’s. Sometimes in daytime. Sometimes in front of the school. A lot of strange things. Even the Ute Indians, some of them I interviewed when I was over there, have seen a lot of strange things. They would tell their peoples to keep away from this property.

It, it has this ridge of rock that goes around this five hundred and eighty- eight acre ranch. Farms we would call them. In NZ we call them farms, not ranches. And anyway…. So I went with my paranormal investigation equipment. I had infra-red cameras, I had my SLR, my audio recorders, cameras etc. etc. And, I didn’t know what to expect, I didn’t know…. But, a lot of people that did go there, they get something…. something does happen. Quite commonly it happens, and sometimes, some of these people are hard-nosed skeptics! Even they have stuff happen, and they leave that place scarred and sometimes the phenomenon will follow them. As George Knapp reports, there’s a piggy back effect associated with the phenomenon at that ranch.

Now, on the first night of investigating…. Now, it’s very hard to get close to that property it’s a very large area, there’s a lot of private properties around there. I had these light anomalies that approached me very quickly. And they came against the gale winds. And they approached me and did a ninety degree turn, straight in front of my face. I had my infra-red point of view camera on. They lit up the side of my face. They moved incredibly fast. All I could see was these lights approaching me and they zip in front of my face.

So fortunately I got at least one of those. I also caught very strange plasma formations as well. There was thunder storms on the horizon I don’t know if that would have had anything to do with it. But the thunderstorms were pretty far, you know? Pretty far away. So that was the first night. The second night got stranger. Now, you can go there and expect one thing and get another. Where we were perched…. I was with my girlfriend at the time, up on UFO hill, as it’s known by the locals. Over by the lake they call ‘Bottle Hollow Lake Reservoir’. Even outside of this property, strange things have happened.

Well, I was up there perched on this hill, it was completely dark and we did have a trooper, one of the troopers – the tribal troopers pull over and say what’s this car doing here? He didn’t see me in the dark, ‘cause, I had my infrared cameras up on this hill. I had to very carefully approach him from the dark and say “Hi. I’m here, don’t shoot me!”   You know…. Just letting you know I’m doing … I just said, I’m skywatching, I didn’t say I was trying to get UFO’s. Technically, I was on Ute property. So anyway, he was nice. He was just checking on why the car was parked there in the darkness.

Anyway, I was there with my girlfriend and we heard this strange animal cry out. It was a little bit freaky, I didn’t know what the heck it was. I’m not used to the wild life up there in Utah, I mean I did live in Utah for a little bit, but I was in the suburban area, when I was over there as a student and later on. And then there was something…. There was an explosion, at first I thought it was a battery pack that had gone off, and I checked all my electronics, no, it was none of that.

Well, When I had gone over the footage, a rock had been thrown at us, and had landed right by us. Must have been pretty heavy, it sounded like an explosion! I thought maybe something from…. You know, we had a power line that was nearby, just one of those residential ones, it didn’t carry much current. But anyway, so I assumed that was some kind of big foot, kind of creature that did that, because if you know anything about bigfoot, that’s one of the things they do, they throw rocks.  And it’s thought, it’s maybe to scare people off. It could be to get your attention…. And so after that, I put together my little documentary, called “Skinwalker Ranch – Apocalypse, Close Encounters” And I put this footage up there. You can see it free on YouTube in fact, but, so that sort of got me into this. Now look I didn’t really have a pro-active interest in Bigfoot, until this experience. This was obviously the North American bigfoot or Sasquatch, as it’s known.

I had been in America for a while. I wanted to come back to New Zealand. I returned to New Zealand, in 2015. Now 2015 I got back here to NZ, it was good to be back. I missed the ocean, I missed the greenery, the trees, and meat pies, fish and chips…. All that kind of stuff! I really missed a lot. Two decades is – I had been over there. But anyway I thought, well look! I’m going to do some hiking, tramping back in New Zealand, because I really miss the greenery and the wildlife, back in New Zealand and that.

Anyway. I had done some paranormal work since I got back. I had gone to a couple of cemeteries and I conducted one over the Guardian building on Queen Street, in Auckland city. Now I use a SANGN spirit box, that was shielded with faraday material, to block out the radio signals. I just don’t want to deal with false positives. That being radio signals. I want only instrumental trans-communication or EVPs. Because, that’s what I’m after.

Anyway, I got some strange transmissions that came through, and some of the messages that came through repeated themselves. One of them came across, accept the bigfoot people. Big people.” And it repeated itself. And you listen to this…. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this recording, but this is…. This does not sound like a normal human. Very strange. So if you want to hear something that sounds like a Sasquatch via electronic means, then you listen to my Guardian street investigation video. It has it on. It also has a sample of the UFO, one of the UFO’s flying. Doing a mid-air flip at about Mach 3 over the Coromandel. And actually on that video I have some of the sounds that I picked up there. The strange languages, the sounds…. Stone clacking, wood knocks and other things.

But anyway, later on I decided look…. I had gone into some old historical gold mining areas in America and I thought oh, I’m interested in seeing some of that here in NZ too, because it was really beautiful scenery and I love nature, so I went out…. I went out to this particular area. I had done some research about historical areas in New Zealand – particularly outside and around Auckland. And strange things starte happening when I went out to this area.

One I started…. I started hearing like a wood knock kind of sound and there was another thing that happened. I started getting the feeling of being watched. Along side that, I would hear these bi-pedal footsteps in the bush. Now this is an area that is not easy to get to, I had to use a machete to get out to. This is not known to the public. This is a nondescript area. I go there and ah…. Looked my interest perked. I didn’t know what the heck was going on. Over time, as I went back to the area, I got what they call samurai chatter, where you hear something talking, but you can’t really, necessarily understand what it is saying. And look, I said look, I’m not here to harm anything. I come in all respect. Whatever you are. I know there’s different kinds of beings out there, so I just said I come in respect.

I didn’t know…. Look, why is this happening to me? I mean, I have had some very bizarre stuff happen, I did not expect this to happen to me, in the New Zealand wilderness. I thought I was going to go and have a great time exploring. You know as I kid…. I have never heard of bigfoot in New Zealand. And it wasn’t until I started researching…. And not only this, I had these things walk up to me. I could not see them, and that was, that was what really troubled me as well. I thought, well, it could be kind of like a ghost-like phenomena going on?

I had this feeling there was more activity in this ravine. It was a very steep ravine, that leads down to this particular area. It’s very remote. There’s a lot of obnoxious plants that cut you when you go through. It’s not one of those areas, where you just go on a family picnic. It’s like, machete required – if you know what I mean?  That kind of area.

Well anyhow, I went down to this ravine area…. I’ve heard things follow me…. I’ve had, what is really bizarre is to find these footprints. I found these footprints in the mud and the gravel. There’s a little stream that goes down through that area. And I found little structures as well. And, I found little tiny footprints as well, right by the stream. And, I thought this is bloody bizarre, I mean who in their right mind would go out to this area? I mean it’s really hard to get to, it’s dangerous, it’s slippery. There’s no tourist part about it. I guess you could have kids that might venture, but it’s a very hard place to get to. There’s certain aspects to it, that make it very well protected from outsiders. And that’s why I suspect they might be out there as well, is because it is a very well protected area.  

So, these footprints…. I saw a photo of them on your website, and it’s quite a large print there, especially compared with your boot size.

Yes. Some of them are. I’ve got a size 11 boots, and they’re bigger than my boot. Some footprints are smaller. I wish in the early days I thought to take casting material out there. Because, I found juvenile prints out there as well. It’s so bizarre what’s going on. Not only that…. I’ve discovered a whole bunch of trees that have been ripped down, with brute force, at low ground level. I found strange symbols carved into tree trunks.

There’s a certain area where all this…. That I call the epicentre of activity. Where I believe they reside, and I don’t know that…. I don’t know that it’s necessarily all flesh and blood. It’s a very bizarre aspect to it, that I suspect I’m…. I’m getting something similar to Mike Patterson of Sasquatch Ontario. I don’t know if you’re familiar with his work? But he’s picked up some amazing Sasquatch vocals. But I’m picking up chanting out there. I’m picking up strange languages. I’m getting approaches.

Also, because I do instrumental trans-communication, or ITC is the abbreviation, the acronym.  I get little tid bits of information about what’s going on. They said, they had ripped these trees down for me and made a pathway for me. They know us humans, we walk in pathways. We need roads, we need pathways, they don’t! They can go straight up a slippery hill. I don’t know how they do it without slipping down? This is very slippery ground. I had to go on all fours to go on some of this ground, where they are at. It’s so bizarre, I can’t believe this is happening to me. I’m trying very hard to be sceptical and in balance, so I actually record everything now.

I wear point of view cameras, I record the sound. I have things approach me, and vocalise to me. One of my videos called “Sasquatch Interaction in New Zealand”, actually records their, a number of what they can do. One, being the tree knocks. Two, you’ve got the bipedal approaches. Three, you’ve got, the branch gets moved back and forth [inaudible] me. Fourth, you have the vocals, these deep set of lungs that mimic me. I go woop, woop, woop, and you hear a fourth woop, that responds back to me. And this is not an echo. This is an area that has a lot of trees. It’s not conducive to echoing.

I try to rule out a lot of this stuff as I’m doing it, because it sounds very bizarre. And, I know how it sounds to an outsider. How, I’ve had some very strange experiences in my life. So I don’t know…. Is this stuff, is some of it connected to the other phenomena?  There was a researcher over in Pennsylvania by the name of Stan Gordon, who wrote some books on the subject of Bigfoot and UFOs. I suspect that what I’m doing with…. Has some kind of connection to UFOs. Ah, and you’ve seen that footage….

And, I caught that footage in a very short amount of time. I would take a lie detector test over it. There is no fakery…. I am…. I am dead serious on this subject. I mean, I don’t have the greatest health, so when I go out to that area…. Each time I go out to that area, I say to myself, what the heck am I doing here? I mean, I hurt like hell. My back hurts like hell when I’m trying to climb out of there. It’s not a walk in the park you know?

Hmm…. For listeners, the footage that Marc is referring to is some anomalous aerial activity that he caught in this region and while it’s not available to the general public at the moment, it will be included in one of his documentaries at some stage, I imagine. Is that correct Marc?

Correct, yes. The full footage will be made available. There is a number of anomalies, doing impossible things. There is a little  portion of it that is available to the public on the Guardian Street investigation. If you look up Guardian on the. On my videos, it actually has a little portion of that footage. Well one of the sources is flying along… Now, this is going at like Mach 3. The SLR [camera], barely captures them. One of them, it does a mid-air flip, and in two frames it does a flip. This is close to the ground. We have nothing in our technology that can do that. No drone.No [unintelligible] spy plane…. There is nothing that we have that is “known” in quotations, that can do that. There was no sonic boom. Which was another aspect to a lot of UFO’s when they come in really fast and they don’t cause a sonic boom. At least most of the time they don’t.

Actually before we go any further, would you like to tell everybody what your website name is?

Yes, they can go to www.hauntedman.net  And on there I have linked YouTube videos and little articles. Most of the content is through YouTube however, but you can find pictures. I’ve even got anomalies out there, up trees. Very strange stuff. And, I’ve gone back and they haven’t been there later when I’ve gone back with a 200 mm lense. I’m also a semi-pro photographer and I have a graphics background as well. I also have worked as a student news reporter and photographer, so I do have a slight media background as well.  Look, this is a mystery to me and I’ve…. I’m hungry like a tiger, I want to know, what’s going on

It’s really interesting, for me personally. Because this has been a fascination for my entire life, as I told you when we first talked. And, I’ve always wondered personally if there was a connection between Bigfoot sightings and UFO activity. Because, some Bigfoot sighing accounts that I’ve read of in the states, there have been reported instances of UFO activity in the region at that time.

Yes! Well, that research that I’ve mentioned, Stan Gordon, actually went to investigate – over there in Pennsylvania. I think it was 1973. He had a team that would go and investigate these very strange bigfoot slash, and UFO encounters. Now, that doesn’t happen all the time. But it is interesting when it does…. There have been these giant, bigfoot like creatures seen around UFOs and they had red eyes, and they made sounds like crying babies almost and…. I have been in contact with people here in New Zealand, who have heard some very strange things. Some of them skeptics you know…. As I am sure you find Marianne, that doing this research on your end, that you’ll get people that will contact you about things that go on that the general public does not know about. Because, many people they’re afraid, they’re afraid to go public.

Hmmm, hmmm…. And a lot of people whose experiences I share on the podcast, a lot of them – most of them actually, prefer to remain anonymous. Or, I’ll alter their voices so if they are female, they might sound like a male – you know, because they want to remain private and…. And understandably so, because you know, it’s hard for some people to accept that there might be other realities, other than the ones that we can see, and hear, and smell, and taste, and touch.

Well, I’d just like to make a point of that…. You know, when I was over by Skinwalker ranch, I interviewed a man in the community who didn’t want to be named. But he has a…. In his profession he was involved in working with school children – they saw…. I think it was February 12^th 2004…. There was a major sighting of a sauce that knocked power out in Fort De Cheyne there.  A group of them had seen this saucer, and the children were having big problems over it. All of a sudden they see this, what is going on? This is not in a school book. This is not in a text book. This is beyond our understanding. It questions people’s conditioning – you know?  Some people have a very hard time and are very shaken up over it. Some people will want to find out what’s going on. Other people completely close up and go the other way and I understand that. I respect people, their mental ability to cope.

Yeah, it’s really individual isn’t it? And it’s really interesting, I didn’t quite expect…. I didn’t quite expect this to go in this direction, but I’m actually interviewing the head of one of New Zealand’s UFO organisations shortly, so, it’s quite interesting. So it will sort of ties in with this, in a way. So currently you’re trying to raise funds to create a documentary about this, to create… Do you want to tell us about that a little bit?

Yes, well what I’d like to do is go to some of these areas where there have been sightings – and there have been modern sightings. It’s just you don’t hear about them generally in the media. There’s some outlets that might give you a chance to tell your story, if you’re willing but… I know like the Herald is…. I know from past experience that there is a lot of skepticism….  So what I’m, what I want to do is interview modern witnesses, and I want to go and do some night investigations and….  Like, I had been in contact with a skeptic, someone who is very scientific. He had two companions and was up Mount Moehau there, that has all that history with New Zealand’s Bigfoot there. They heard a howl up in the middle of the night, around 2 am. It terrified all of them. They immediately left the area and went down this mountain. And, that’s the mountain of course that has all the history to it. The place of the patupiarehe, the Maori, fairy people and the New Zealand’s, bigfoot – wild man.     

Right, right…. I think I remember hearing about his –  that experience. I think it was on Yowie hunters or something like that, when I was researching. Have you had other people come and share their experiences with you?

I’ve had quite a few. Look, most people as you know, do not want to speak openly about it and will speak to you in confidence. Which to me, gives more credibility when…. Well, they’ve got nothing to gain from just talking to you. So they? There’s no monetary gain. There’s no notoriety. In fact, even if you’re in this subject people scornfully look at you and shhh you can’t talk about that – kind of thing, you know?

Yeah they do

So, it’s…. It’s not about glory. You really have to have a passion for it.

So that’s where we will end part 1 of our Moehau man episode, and interview with my guest Marc. Our conversation continues next week, along with NZ sightings and reports of big cat mysteries, that have made NZ headlines over the years, and in fact continue to do so. It was initially the big cat sightings that prompted me to make these episodes focusing on NZ cryptids.

This episode, was a really learning one for me. This is one of the things that I really love about doing these podcasts. It is how very much I learn, and increase my knowledge when doing my research. There are so many wonderful and unknown things in this world, and so much we can learn, experience and enjoy…. As that famous quote from Shakespeare goes:

“There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio, than are dreamt about in man’s philosophy!”

Oh my word…. I feel like a kid in a candy store – so many delicious treats, subjects for episodes, all tantalisingly within reach, but where to go?…. Ah decisions!

The question for me, as always, is what would you all find most interesting to listen to? Please, at any time, feel free to email me at shadowlands@myyahoo.com with suggestions for subjects you would like me to cover, and if I do not know of them as I did not of our Moehau man, then absolutely I will research and learn as much as I can to share with you all. And, as always, I would love to hear your experiences, or your thoughts.

The piece of music that I chose to share with you all today, is actually one of my favourite Maori waiata or songs, called ‘E Te Ariki’. Again I do not know the singer to be able to name her for you as the music as from the same internet archives as last weeks. So if any you know who this woman is, please let me know so I can give her credit

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