Heading into Northland from Auckland around the Kaipara Harbour you soon start to see the evidence that the Kauri played in the lives of our pioneer families. Our first encounter was at the Bushman's Memorial Park just north of Paparoa. This took us a couple of kms up a narrow gravel road to a small stand of kauri and a quick 15 minute walk around the track. Although the trees weren't huge it did give us a taste of what was to come.
The next stop in our 'Driving Guide to Scenic NZ' was the Matakohe Kauri Museum. Our book said to allow at least a couple of hours to view this major drawcard for the area and it wasn't wrong. Although we initially thought the $25 entrance fee per person was a little steep we would have to say that it is excellent value and that this would have to be the 'best' museum we have been to. Your ticket entry is valid for 24 hours so that means you can come and go during that period of time. And the bonus for us is that it is listed in our travel directory as POP so we were also able to stay the night in the car park, and view some of the displays outside of the main galleries the next morning.
This museum has an excellent website if you want to look further: Matakohe Kauri Museum
or better still put it on your list of 'must sees'.
The museum has a focus on just three feature areas The Kauri tree, the timber and gum, and the early pioneers. The displays are divided into a series of halls and galleries, each depicting an aspect of the tree feature areas. Whole scenes were set up to give an almost life-like look that included mannequins that represented local settler families. It was this particular feature that gave it authenticity and a very real link to both past and present families. In the photos below these scenes are 'real' with the mannequins in them - not just a mural as it seems to look.
Next stop was the Trounson Kauri Park, that was by way of a alternative road to S12 and a place that where we could have lunch and a 45 minute walk. Unfortunately the heavy rain in the area over the past couple of weeks meant the track was flooded and impassable. We could see that it would be a very popular site under dry conditions, as adjacent was a DOC camp.
Tane Mahuta, that giant of a Kauri has always been on my list of 'must sees' and it can be found in the Waipoua Forest, which S12 passes through. But before we got to that tree, we stopped one km south to visit some other famous trees. By this stage the rain was relentless but out came the umbrellas and gumboots and off we walked to visit the two closest, the Four Sisters and Te Matua Ngahere. The Four Sisters is a rare example of four trees sprouting from one base, while Te Matua Ngahere is the second largest kauri still standing. It is a huge tree with a 16.4m circumference.
Down the road we walked the 5 minutes to Tane Mahuta. This tree rises 51.5m and is often referred to the Lord of the Forest. Standing as close as you can (barriers keep you back from the base as their root structure is very close to the surface) it sure makes you feel small.
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