Books by Des Hunt

"Sent to live with his grandmother in Hastings after his father is jailed, Matt becomes the victim of bad friends and false accusations. Sent off on a military-style school camp to the wilds of Lake Waikaremoana, Matt again gets in trouble for something he didn't do, and is unjus...tly punished. Not allowed to join his school friends on their activities, he spends time alone down by the lake where he discovers a massive eel. Unfortunately, news gets out about the eel Matt has nicknamed Elsa, and the class bad-boy, Cameron, is determined to kill it. Matt is determined not to let him ... but then, following a night of torrential rain, catastrophe strikes the camp and Matt ends up saving Cam's life."--Publisher information.
Read more

"It's the school holidays and Zac thinks he might go crazy with boredom. He's living in exile with his disgraced father on the remote Terawhiti Station on Wellington's wild south-west coast. Zac and his father witness a shipwreck off the coast. Investigating further, he finds a s...et of unusual paw prints on the beach. Whose yacht it is? And what animal could have made the paw prints? Soon Zac is drawn into a mystery which threatens his life and those around him. He must protect the secret of the Phantom of Terawhiti from those intent on hunting it - and him - down"--Publisher information. Suggested level: primary, intermediate.
Read more

Jake lives with his father in a remote part of the Wairarapa, where he can surf and watch the whales. But then Jake's dad begins a relationship with a new partner, who moves in with her daughter Stephanie, and at the same time a local photographer starts stalking their next door ...neighbour Milton Summer, an international rock celebrity- and Jake's peaceful life erupts into volence and deceit. An when a whale and her calf get into trouble on the treacherous coast, the history of Whale Pot Bay seems doomed to repeat itself unless Jake, Milton and Stephanie can survive the deadly tide.
Read more

Luke Evans never knew his father; he'd cleared out before he was born. So when his internet skills track down someone living at a luxurious resort in tropical Queensland who could be his dad, Luke's imagination runs wild. Luke soon learns that no one is perfect, and the world can... be a tricky place.
Read more

"Logan's grandfather grew up near Palmerston North in the 1940s. One day, he and his sister Mavis spotted a beautiful and unusual bird in the kowhai tree outside their house: it was a huia bird, which was believed to be extinct. The bird flew away, and in an attempt to photograph... it they managed to track it deep into the Manawatu Gorge. It was a dangerous journey through two train tunnels, made even more so when the horrible Carson boys got wind of their mission and decided to try and find the huia first so they could shoot it and sell its highly valuable feathers. More than 60 years later, 11-year-old Logan has returned to the Manawatu with Grandpop and a scientist to try and solve the mystery of what happened to the huia that he and Mavis found all those years ago. Grandpop must remember all the details of the events of many years ago. Can the group rely on his version of the events, and find the huia's final resting place? Will the huia still be there, and will its DNA still be valuable for scientific research into NZ's native fauna? And whoever would have thought that those Carsons are still living in the area and on the loose, and still up to their nasty tricks?"--Publisher information. Suggested level: primary, intermediate, junior secondary.
Read more