Advertisement
Published: February 4th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Tane Mahuta
The largest living Kauri currently in existence. The South Pacific Migration is one the greatest yet little appreciated stories in human history. From 30000 BC to 1000 AD, groups originating from South China traveled to the South Pacific Islands and down into New Zealand. The humble sweet potato suggests that some groups may have even made it to South America. There are Maori legends that suggest they may have even made it Antarctica!
Somehow the Maori lost the navigational arts of their forefathers that brought them to these southern islands, but they never forgot that they came from somewhere else. When Captain Cook arrived in 1769, one of his guests from the Cook Islands was able to communicate with the Maori fairly well. When the Maori arrived in New Zealand, they found great trees, the kauri, and chicken-sized flightless birds that had never dealt with predators. These birds are called kiwis, and they are the ORIGINAL KIWIS. Kiwi fruit is not native to New Zealand, and owes its name to a highly successful marketing campaign. (Interestingly, the kiwi fruit originated from southern China, and is China's national fruit! Now there's a trivia question!) The Maoris chopped down the kauris for their canoes, and their dogs and pigs
Te Matua Ngahere
The second-largest living Kauri. ate the kiwi birds. Later, the Europeans arrived and brought more pressure on the native wildlife. To this day, New Zealand is still struggling to balance human and natural interests.
On Wednesday, March 3rd, we drove westwards across Northland from Paihia to the Waipoua National forest to see some of the last remaining kauri trees. Our first stop was to pay tribute to Tane Mahuta - the Lord of the Forest. At 51 m, high it is the largest known kauri, and is at least 1200 years old. Tane Mahuta holds court in a still and flush forest that seemed undisturbed by man or beast, yet he is only a short walk from the highway. Then we visited Te Matua Ngahere - the Father of the Forest. At 16.4 m girth, it is the thickest known Kauri, second largest, and is thought to be over 2000 years old. Now coming from the northwest US and the Bolivian rainforests, we had seen some trees before. Still, we were very impressed. With the sun inching down, we left a few more trees for tomorrow and headed for a nearby campground. As we drove in, I noticed a couple loose dogs on
the road ahead of us, even though there signs everywhere asking people not to bring dogs due to their impact on wildlife. Would a few more flightless kiwis lose their lives to these dogs that night?
The next morning, I asked the park warden about the dogs. He told me those were his dogs. He was out hunting pigs last night. Now wait a sec... you have signs all over the park telling people not bring their dogs in, but the warden himself takes his dogs off hunting? He explained that there was nothing to worry about - only mongrel dogs would kill a kiwi. Well, it's still kind of confusing.
We went to look at some more trees to clear our heads. We went to see Yakas Kauri, the 7th largest known kauri tree. Not quite as big as yesterday's giants, Yakas makes up for it by being much more friendly. Yakas is standing right next to the boardwalk trail, close enough to be hugged. Unabashed tree huggers both, we did not even try to resist. After embracing Yakas, we went for a short hike to the Four Sisters, a group of 4 largish Kauri trees all
standing together, but fused together at the base. Did they really have the same mother? I don't think it matters anymore.
(Note: Kauri trees have shallow delicate roots which do not fare well under the feet of visitors. We had to stay on the boardwalks at all times, which is why we couldn't give a hug to Tane Mahuta or the other kauri trees.)
Having gotten our tree fix, we motored back to Northland's east shore. But while we're still in the car, let me say that driving in Northland is a great pleasure. It's not just the craziness of driving on the left hand side; the roads are real curvy, sparsely populated, and the official speed is 100 km/hr. I could never get the speed up that fast on account of the curves, so 100 clicks was basically an invitation to drive as fast as you wanted. The police, incidentially, were concerned about the situation, and had plenty of signs around warning people to slow down. Still, I'm baffled that they apparently did not have the power to just lower the official posted speed limit.
We spent the night at the Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite
on the wind-swept Ureti beach. The DOC campsites are great budget savers for trampers in New Zealand. Though they have less amenities, they are much cheaper than the private 'holiday parks' in which 2 people tenting can pay more than $30. The next morning, we visited the nearby Waipu Caves - another great budget option! Though nothing special, the caves have the advantage of being completety free! Still, they were not too muddy with just a little pool of water inside. One chamber was accessible and deep enough to be completely pitch black inside. Turning off our headlamps, we were rewarded by thousands of tiny lights along the cave walls produced by glowworms - the larvae of a fungus gnat. This was my first time caving! I was really enjoying it and feeling quite adventurous, when we were unfortunately disturbed by a troupe of kindergardeners! The stupid kids ruined the fantasy, so we headed back to the light.
That afternoon, we drove to the beautiful beach town of Leigh. We had come to explore the Goat Island Marine Reserve, a 500 hectare offshore area that is protected from fishing, and is used for scientific research and public recreation. Its
named for a small island within the reserve on which early settlers used to keep goats. We had balked at the NZ scuba prices after our bargains in Honduras, so we choose to snorkel instead. There was some decent snorkeling right around Goat Island, which is only about 50 m or so offshore. The water was a bit choppy and murky, but we managed to see a few fish and even a couple of sting rays. That night, we stayed at the Goat Island holiday park and enjoyed the warm showers. We finished out the day with some acceptable fish and chips in the town of Leigh. The next day, we were up early to get the most out of our 24-hr gear rental. Unfortunately, the water was very choppy and visibility was terrible. We hardly saw anything. We were glad that we had snorkelled last night, and felt sorry for the scuba divers we passed in the water. We headed back into town for a satisfying brunch at the famous Leigh Saw Mill Cafe. Of course, we would be foolish to come all the away from the other side of the world to the town of Leigh, NZ, (maybe
the only time we will ever visit Leigh, NZ,) and NOT eat in the famous Leigh Saw Mill Cafe. That would be like going to the moon and NOT playing golf.
With our meal finished, it was time to head south. We had been in New Zealand for more than a week and had not even been south of Auckland. Trouble was, we weren't sure where we wanted to go next. This new freedom of having a car meant that we didn't have to plan so far ahead. However, planning our next move on the spur of the moment could be perilous given our tight time constaints. After going back to Auckland to trade in our ailing tent poles, we headed south. We debated whether to stop at the Hobbiton movie set, or booking it all the way to Tongariro National Park in the middle of the north island. In the end, we decided to head for the town of Rotorua.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.127s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0608s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb