Tuesday 20 January & Wednesday 21 January

The farmer came past at 0630 on his quad bike to milk the cows so that was an early alarm for us to get on and see the Kauri museum. 

After coffee at the Gumdiggers Cafe and a quick look at the small church we went into the Matakohe Kauri museum. This was an excellent museum showing the way in which the pioneers cut down and then hauled out these enormous trees. There were many examples of the machinery and saws that were used and a lot of photographs of the Victorian times. The Kauri tree itself is vast compared with the other forest trees and some that are still growing are over 2,000 years old. They have also unearthed  trees from the swamp and these have been dated at over 40,000 years old—and the timber can still be used.

Unfortunately Mark’s photographs taken at the museum have disappeared into the ether when transferring them from camera to PC so they cannot be put in the blog—he hopes to retrieve them in Singapore, probably with the help of a 5 year old grandson as it is beyond him to do so!!

However we moved on down the road to a craft shop that was selling wonderfully crafted goods made from the Kauri swamp timber and then on to see the trees themselves growing in the forests. It was in about 1950 that they had the foresight to stop the felling of any more Kauri trees and the few remaining are now fully protected and indeed they have been planting more.

After an overnight stop at a  camp site by the river we went to see the trees in the forest.

The Four Sisters was four large kauri trees that had grown together.(photo missing)

The Father of the Forest is the second largest tree still living (just) with a trunk height of 10.21 metres and a girth of 16.41 metres. When we first saw this one it was like looking at a rock face rather than a tree.

and the God of the Forest which is the largest living tree with a trunk height of 17.66 metres and a girth of 13.77 metres

and it is of course compulsory to give one a hug——this was a small one beside the track!

To avoid a long drive round we took the ferry from Rawene across to the well preserved ‘Victorian’ village of Kohukohu

with its small church

We camped at a DOC site at Maitai Bay far out on the Karikari peninsula and were lucky to have the last pitch the other 99 having already been taken. A lovely spot but very remote

but a BBQ steak, sweet corn and mushrooms filled the gap for a restful night.