The world-famous toilet block at Kawakawa is really a story about a man who found himself at home in a country that was not his own, and so he gave back to the local community that which he could — his world-renowned artistic talent. The fact that he happened to bless the toilets with his genius is just a matter of convenience.

Back when we had first arrived in the country, we stopped at Whangerei in our horse truck, on our way north to turn it into a mobile home. We were sleeping rough on sleeping bags and a mattress picked up from the side of the road, and David and I met two nice Maori men while I was taking pictures of a public monument in the moonlight. Upon hearing that we were new visitors to the country, the men insisted we needed to stop at the toilets at Kawakawa. “It’s a big deal,” they insisted, and so we mentally put it onto our list of must-sees in Northland. They weren’t exaggerating.

Today we parked across the road from the famous Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa. They are world-famous — not for their size or grandiosity, but because they are specially unique. Friedensreich Hundertwasser is a renown Austrian architect who eschewed straight lines (calling them “the devil’s tools”) and boring colour schemes in favour of organic curves and bright colours. Before his death in 2000, Hundertwasser was one of Europes’s most famous living artists.

When Hundertwasser visited New Zealand in the 1970s in order to mount an exhibition, he fell in love with this beautiful nation. He bought a rural block outside Kawakawa and appreciated the anonymity his location afforded him. He used the tiny town for convenience shopping where he discovered that he was not a celebrity but just a customer.

To return the favour allocated to him by the locals who respected his privacy, he offered to design and oversee the construction of new public toilets in Kawakawa. Students from all across the country and local artists collaborated on the project, giving it a true sense of ownership by Kiwis although the design is Hundertwasser’s. This unique structure is the only Hundertwasser design in the southern hemisphere, and aficionados (with money) make pilgrimages to Kawakawa just to see this amenities block.

Rather than a clinical sign, a clay tile of a woman beckons me into the correct side of the toilet. Coloured ceramic pots form a column at the front of the toilets, and bottles embedded in the concrete let light through the wall.

The entrance to the men's side has its own unique signage as well.

Even the gate to lock the toilets is a recycled work of art.

Within the toilets, light is filtered through a wall of coloured bottles at the far end.

The details continue within each cubicle where the toilet seat is fine Kauri wood.

The floor is a beautiful hodge-podge mosaic.

Some fine glass tiles are embedded in the wall.

A huge, cheerful whale adorns the wall of one cubicle.

When we stopped to pay homage to his artist, I was particularly careful to point out the design elements to Brioni. With her natural artistic abilities, I wanted to show her what is possible if you apply a design flair to architecture — even that of public conveniences.

Across the road, a shopfront mimics the Hundertwasser style, including the garden on the roof.

On the street, random structures show local artistic talent.

Other local art galleries have public displays on the main street.

We enjoyed looking around Kawakawa. It’s a very small town and punctuated by a railway line right down the middle of the main street. When they were first built, detractors said that the Hundertwasser toilets would be vandalised, but Hundertwasser retorted that something this good would attract more goodness towards the town. He has been proven right.