2006/05 NZ trip - Waipoua (kauri) forest |
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Sunday May 14th
We had a sunny morning for our short drive to Matakohe, a spot on another arm of the same harbour. Someone had recommended a visit to the Kauri Museum and it turned out to be much more than we expected. It was mainly 
about the logging and sawmilling of the kauri tree, but it also had thousands of pictures and machines and relics from the early settler days in this part of New Zealand. Kauri trees live for up to 2000 years and can grow to be over twenty feet in diameter. The wood is hard with attractive colour and grain, and it’s very resistant to rot. It was used for boats, masts, buildings, and some gorgeous furniture. Some of the articles, including a plate that we bought and shipped back home, had been made from trees that had lain in a swamp for 30000 years without rotting. There was one other benefit too, the kauri gum, a resin very 
similar to amber. The trees leak the gum whenever they are injured, and the stuff lasts forever, so the ground in a kauri forest is littered with great chunks of it. Its main use was in making the finest varnish, but it was also used for decoration and making linoleum. The gum diggers were men who spent their lives digging up ancient kauri gum and refining it.
Of course, the kauri bonanza is over now, and the remaining trees are protected in reserves. We were hoping to camp that night in a kauri forest, so we had to drag ourselves away at lunch time and head north through Dargaville to the Waipoua Forest.
There are a fair number of towns with English, Scottish, or Welsh names, but most of them have Maori names. The Maori consonants seem to be limited to GHKMNPRT and W, so there are lots of similar names. In the area we’re in, as well as Waipoua, we had Wiripapakauri, Wainui, Waimanoni, Waiharahara, Warawara and Wangape, not to mention Whatuwhiwhi!! In many ways Maori is similar to Japanese, except that it has no S and very few spaces. It’s rather like traveling on the Tokyo subway and trying to distinguish the Akasakas from the Asakusas.
The main road is two lanes of blacktop, occasionally shrinking for a one-lane bridge. It’s not empty of traffic, but it’s not very busy either. There are few towns, mostly little villages with a handful of houses. There are lots of sheep and cows, and some vineyards, but no grain crops. The overwhelming colour is still green.
We had rain most of the way, and rolled into Waipoua just before 
dark. As well as protecting the kauri trees, the Waipoua Forest is also home to a shrinking population of kiwis, the national bird. Most of the remaining native bird population, particularly the flightless birds, has been badly affected by all the animals we Brits took with us: cats, dogs, stoats, deer, and now the possums. The kiwis are disappearing fast. The ranger told us we were unlikely to see any but we might hear them, and he played us a recording so we’d recognize the sound.
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Waipoua Forest (5.23) |
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We were the only campers, nestled in a quiet and muddy spot next to the tumbling Waipoua River, surrounded by soggy forest. Heavy rain set in as we set up, so we had no chance to do any exploring. Late that evening I walked back to the ranger station through the forest in the dark and wet to make some phone calls, and heard a male kiwi and a morepork owl, but all I actually saw were a couple of rabbits, more British imports! Even later, we heard a female kiwi, close at hand, so we set off on a flashlight expedition, but all we got was wet feet. This was not as dangerous as it sounds, as this is a very benign forest, with no snakes, and just a few poisonous spiders that have sneaked in from Australia. There don’t seem to be any leeches.
We found that our camper had a leaky roof and we had to arrange some plastic bags to take the drips. I also found that the 
camper had no socket for me to plug my CPAP machine into the camper’s battery, but luckily I had enough electrical bits with me to jury rig a connection.
Monday May 15th
We had heavy rain overnight. The only wildlife we sawin the morning was a wild cat, bad news for the kiwis. We drove north through the forest and then hiked in to see the big kauri trees. The kauris are more famous for their girth more than their height. The biggest trees look like a wall in the forest. Their first branches are maybe 70 feet up, and the bran
ches are the size of normal trees. The Tanu Mahuta is the biggest kauri still alive. The forest also has thesecond largest, the Ta Matua Ngahere, and the seventh, known as Yakas. These are all in dark and dense forest, and surrounded by smaller trees, tree ferns, and spider plants. Most of the hike was in the gloom and wet, as it rained for most of the time.