Along the Kauri Coast

We’re in kauri country. We’ve traveled New Zealand’s kauri country since we turned southwest near Mangamuka Bridge and dropped into the Hokianga. Kauri, a conifer and one of the world’s largest trees, grows in this warm northern part of New Zealand. At one time, kauri spread from Northland to the Coromandel Peninsula south of Auckland. Today, the majority of kauri are in the Hokianga region.

Hokiangaa Harbour

Photo By: Bryan Goddard

Called Hokianga-nui-a Kupe– the returning place of Kupe, Maori legend says Kupe discovered Hokianga Harbour. The two headlands are Taniwha who came with Kupe. The eleven rivers that feed into Hokianga Harbour are paths made by their children. When Kupe first came to New Zealand, trees covered 80% of the land. Early Maori chewed kauri gum and mixed soot from burnt gum with oil to make moko– facial tattoos. They valued kauri for its size. At times, teams of chanting Maori pulled ropes tied to logs from the forest. The first Europeans used kauri timber for shipbuilding. Kauri’s strong straight growth made it ideal for masts. By 1900, most kauri forests had been cut down. Kauri logging ended in state forests around 1985.

Kauri Bark

Photo By: paulmcelhone

We joined Hwy 12 just after we left the ferry at Rawene. Then, we took a short drive out Signal Station Road to enjoy a view of Hokianga Harbour from South Cape. We’ll follow Hwy 12 down the Kauri Coast, visit Tane Mahuta, Lord of the Forest, and his four sisters, then sooner or later end up in Auckland. Most tours skip this fairly remote area. The best way to explore these four protected kauri forests is by vehicle or boat. You’ll find campgrounds in Waipoua Forest and also Trounson Kauri Park– both a short distance south of Opononi. If a night in the bush isn’t your cuppa, you can stay in Opononi or Omapere and take a day trip to visit Tane Mahuta.

If you hang around with an Aussie, they’ll tell you the bush is the outback. In New Zealand, the bush is a forest– a thick forest layered with trees, shrubs, vines and ferns. You don’t want to and probably can’t get far off the path. Even though there’s no poisonous creepy crawly things in New Zealand, you might run into a weta– a large scary-looking cricket who thinks you’re large and scary-looking, or a friendly fantail. About the size of a chubby sparrow with an apricot breast and white ear patch. He’ll tag along and zip past your nose, then sit on a branch and spread open his tail for you to admire. Don’t count on a weta or fantail to lead you through the bush. Stay on the path.

Fantail

Photo By: nzkiwi

You’ll find Tane Mahuta towering above a canopy of smaller trees and vines in Waipoua Forest.

Maori say Tane is the son of Ranginui, the sky father and Papatuanuka, the earth mother. The living forest creatures are Tane’s children. A visit to this ancient Lord of the Forest is calming as a church sanctuary. You’ll want to stay and let the worries of the world seep away. There are several tracks and walks throughout the forest.

Te Matua Track is posted from Hwy 12. Once in the carpark, you’ll find signs for Te Matua Ngahere, Father of the Forest. A 20-minute walk from the carpark, Te Matua, the second largest living kauri in New Zealand, is believed to be over 2000 years old. All kauri have sensitive surface roots. You’ll find viewing platforms and wooden walks around kauri. From this same carpark, you can visit the Four Sisters with their evenly spaced slender trunks joined together at the base.

Morepork

Photo By: Steve Atwood

Spend an evening in the forest with the night critters. You’ll find DOC camps near the Tasman Sea or inland at Trounson Kauri Park. Trounson campsite is serviced and booked at any DOC Visitor Centre. DOC has three types of campsites. Standard and basic can’t be booked. There’s a Top 10 Holiday Park nearby. If you’re traveling by car and not camping, book a room at the Holiday Park. We’ve talked about these parks before and their discount cards. Wherever you stay, you can book a guided night walk with the Top 10 Holiday Park. They’ll take you on a night walk through the kauri where you might see weta, glow-worms, Moreporks– tiny New Zealand owls that sing through the forest once the sun goes down– or a kiwi.

Tane Mahuta

Photo By: Greenstone Girl

Spend any amount of time in a kauri forest and you’ll understand:

The Last Kauri
“Artist Rei Hamon was once manager of the Thames Sawmilling Company and had the job of supervising the felling of a large kauri above Tapu in 1961. He recalls, “When that tree fell, it had been standing there for maybe a thousand years...I went back later to where it had been standing, and there were birds fluttering around there, kaka and kereru, that had nested in that tree for generations. That was the finish. I handed in my resignation. I vowed never to fell another healthy tree.”

Quote from:
Joanna Orwin, Kauri: Witness to a Nation’s History. Auckland: New Holland, 2004, p.174


Lyn Harris

RV in NZ: How to Spend Your Winters South in New Zealand





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Back in the Bush

Kauri Tree

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Photo By:

Black Diamond Image

Pohutukawas, those fancy New Zealand Christmas trees, aren’t the only unusual native trees you’ll find when you RV or travel by auto north of Auckland. You’ll soon notice New Zealand’s bush– a dense indigenous forest. In Northland, with its warm climate and moderate rainfall, you’ll find conifer-broadleaf forests and many tropical shrubs and plants.

In lowland forests, rimu, a red pine and the broadleaf tree, taraire are among the forest canopy that protect the many tropical trees, shrubs and flowers. New Zealand’s palm tree lives in this protected tangle of growth as well as several kinds of tree ferns, colored fungi and ground orchids.

The swamp forests have fewer tree species and the tallest trees are kahikatea– conifers that look similar to rimu. A tall flowering tree, the pukatea has a base of thin triangle flanges to support it in the soft swampy

ground and breathing roots like mangroves to bring air to its soggy roots.

Kauri-broadleaf forests can best be seen when you return down the west side of Northland. We passed the turnoff for SH12 on the Mangawhai Heads post. SH12 swings west, comes up the coast through Dargaville and cuts into SH1 again near the Bay of Islands. If you’ve come this far, you want to visit Tane Mahuta in the Waipoua Forest north of Dargaville. Tane Mahuta– Lord of the Forest– was discovered in the 1920's when SH12 was surveyed through the Waipoua Forest. New Zealand’s largest known living kauri tree, according to Maori legend, Tane is the son of Ranginui the sky father and Papatuanuku the earth mother. It’s a short walk under a forest canopy to visit Tane. And an experience you’ll never forget.

Kiwis call their forest the bush. At one time when the moa, that huge flightless bird, roamed New Zealand, 80% of the land was covered with trees. The Maori arrived from the Society Islands (Hawaiiki) some time around the 14th century eager to escape food shortages and war. They cleared land, planted their kumara plants and used the kauri to make wakas-- war canoes. By the time the Pakeha arrived in the 19th century, 50% of New Zealand was still native forest. A dense tangle, the Europeans compared it to a tropical jungle and called it bush.

Kauri Forest

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Photo By:

linss203

Because kauri floats, it was popular for shipbuilding. The tall straight timber made excellent masts. The gum that oozes from mature trees to repair injury was used in varnish and linoleum. By 1900, most of the forests had been cut down. Today, the kauri forests are protected.

While you’re traveling through Northland, enjoy the bush. Park your RV or auto and wander around. But, stay on the track. If you just have to go bush-bashing– tramping around off the track-- take a Kiwi who knows his way around. Your Boy Scout training won’t help a bit. In the bush, the moss doesn’t grow on the north side of the tree. It grows up and down and all around. If you do catch a glimpse of the sun through that tangle of trees in the sky, it’s not in the south where it belongs. If you really want to get away from it all by yourself, carry enough food for at least a week. The load will slow you down enough you won’t wander far from the marked path. When you’re down to your last Snicker bar and still have no idea where you are, sprawl out in the ferns, gaze up the nearest tree where you’re sure the sun is hanging around up there somewhere and thank your lucky stars there’s no creepy crawly biting things in New Zealand.

Lyn Harris

RV in NZ: How o Spend Your Winters South in New Zealand