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Published: January 23rd 2007
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Hec at base of Tane Mahuta
Biggest tree in NZ...over 51 meteres high and 13.8 meters around! The drive from the northland of NZ toward the center of the North island winds through the most incredible twists of roads that we have ever experienced. It took nerves of steel and the occasional white knuckle grip to make our way in our trusty Corolla down the narrow Highway 12 toward the Waipoura Forest. Everyone in the country knows about the Waipoura Forest because it is home to THE giant kauri tree, the largest one in existence. Named Tane Mehuta,King of the Forest( it holds an almost mystical significance to the people.
The tree stands only a few hundred meters from the roadside and we made our way through the lush rainforest, glad to be out of the moving vehicle (can you feel sea sick in a car?). We had seen big trees before, so we were not expecting to be so impressed with this one….but what an enormous tree it is. Standing 51. 5 meters with distance around the trunk of 13. 8 meters, it may be as old as 2000 years. It was a very awe inspiring.
E visited several more of the King of the Forests relatives, then continued our drive southward, stopping for the
Mt. Manghanoui trail
Hec and our first Servas host, Barry night at a small hotel just outside of Auckland. We had ‘done the North’!
The next part of our journey was raking on a different flavour as we had plans to stay with several Servas families in different locations. Servas is an international organization devoted to the promotion of peace, understanding and tolerance through travel. People agree to be ‘hists’ for various travelers as they pass through their home towns, offering accommodation and meals for a max of 2 days. We have been Servas hosts for many years but this was our first trip as Servas travelers. We had to be ‘screened’ to be accepted as such and to receive the host lists for the countries we planned to visit, and we had set up hosts in several towns that we wanted to visit.
It has been another wonder aspect of this adventure. We spent time with Diana and Barry in the lovely coastal town of Tauranga on the Bay of Plenty. She is a retired teacher and he is a Maori businessman and owner/director of several huge sheep farm complexes. They have literally traveled the world so there was dreat conversation and dinner. Di is also interested
Bruce and Lesleys tree top deck
Our second Servas family...again wonderful hospitality! in birds (Hec’s eyes lit up!!). They treated us to a wonderful evening walk around Mt. Maungonui and a delightful (although wet) walk through a Remi forest (another type of big tree) where we spotted lots of new birds. Not that he is counting , but Hector has sighted 41 different birds since he arrived…many of them species he has never seen before!
Our next hosts were Bruce and Lesley, both of whom were once teachers but are doing other careers now. Their luxurious home in Whakatane was built into a hillside ravine and the deck was literally in the tree tops…it was magical. More great conversation, excellent food and wine and a recommendation to do a magnificent 4 hour Cliffside walk that took us into historic Maori hill settlement sites and along the bat. The trail was challenging with hills and hundreds of steps in both directions….it reminded me of how sedentary my life has been for the past 6 years as my calves and quads screamed in protest! Well worth the effort, though, and Hec even joined some of the locals at the pub before dinner. We also took in the weigh in for the local fishing tourney…big
Hammerhead shark
Local fishing tourney in Whakatane...great fun! fish (tuna, hammerhead sharks, marlin) and big money prizes. It was all quite exciting, and an example of how staying with a local family can offer opportunities that regular tourists would miss.
At Bruce and Lesley’s suggestion, we decided to take a guided tour out to White Island, the only island base active volcano in the country! What great advice. This was another amazing experience. The boat, Pee Jay 5, left the shore at 9:15 and sped the 80 minutes to get to the island. En route the crew informed us there ‘might be a problem’. Apparently the swells near the island were so large that the earlier boat had not yet been able to land…we would have to see what it was like once we got there. Sure enough, the waaves were being driven by a north wind that causes the sea to crash up against the old steel pier that was our landing site. It wa decided that we would wait offshore to see if it would calm down. Wait we did…and wait…and wait…all the while rocking and swaying in te sea swells. It wasn’t long before people were turning green and more than a few were
Whakatane River Mouth
View of the town bay from our cliffside walk. reaching for the little white sea sick bags…..this part was not fun, to say the least.
More than an hour later, the crew felt it was safe to go ashore.We dawned our hard hats and gas masks and prepared to (gladly) leave the rocking boat. Even this was tricky, involving jumping onto a rubber dinghy, motoring to the pier, getting out of the rocking dinghy and sliding under a metal bar to the gangplank. It felt good to be on land though and we were excited to explore, having watched the steaming earth from off shore for so long.
The tour took several hours and we learned about the dangers of being there (eruptions, flash floods, flying tock and poisonous gas!!) the history of the island where men actually tried to mine the sulfur, the various eruptions (the most recent in 2000) and the constant effects of the heat and pressure from underground. Rivets of steam rose from fissures and cracks in the earth all around us. We had to walk on carefully chosen paths to avoid the mounds of sulfurous earth, hot spots and bubbling holes. We saw the crater lake with its billows of steam…it was
Hec aboard the PeeJay 5
Watching for ...birds maybe(?) en route to White Island an other-worldly experience. The pictures do not do it justice!
We returned to the ship and were served a great (and much needed ) lunch on board as we sped back to firm land. We arrived at 5:00, stopping only to watch a nursery pod of dolphins playing around the bow of the ship. Where else could you have a vacation like this??
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Eileen & John
non-member comment
Hi folks - finally managed to log in and catch up. It looks and sounds fantastic - totally jealous! Beaches remind me of home but not the weather. Keep having fun and giving us the news. Cheers.