Today was the first day we were able to go out exploring. There are so many things we want to see it was hard to pick one. We eventually decided to head north to the Waipoua Forest. Here’s where it sits on the North Island. We live at Point B and the forest is on the other side of the island at Point A.
New Zealand is incredibly green but this area is even more so. It had been misty, raining off and on all day so the colors were even more vivid.
This is the lookout tower at the forest. It allows you a 360 degree view of the area. The views were spectacular.
The main thing we had come to see were the giant Kauri trees (pronounced “cody” – don’t ask me how you get cody from this spelling). This is the New Zealand version of the giant Redwood trees.
Years ago they were cut down and used to make masts for ships because they grow so tall and straight. There aren’t that many left and are now under the watch of the Department of Conservation.
The trees are estimated to be around 1500 years old. According to Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge, in 512 when these would have started growing, this was the era of King Arthur, Buddhism was being introduced to Japan and the bubonic plague hit Constantinople. It’s hard to imagine living things being that old.
The forest has had a disease introduced which is slowly killing some of the kauri trees. Before we were able to go in we had to wash our shoes.
To get to the trees we had to walk through the rain forest. The hike was wonderful even with the rain.
Tane Mahuta - Lord of the Forest
The biggest tree in all of New Zealand with a trunk girth of 45 feet and a height of 169 feet. Amazing!
Same tree from a distance
From Tane Mahuta we hiked over to Yakas, the 7th biggest tree in New Zealand.
This is some of the beautiful foliage along the way.
This is one of the big trees that didn’t even make the Top Ten. We thought it was huge!
Yakas is the 7th biggest tree in New Zealand. It’s trunk girth is 41 feet and 145 feet tall.
Cathedral of the Trees
These trees are only about 200-300 years old – babies in comparison.
The trees in the forest had these really strange looking growths on them. They felt like leather. I can only imagine they are some kind of mushroom.
On the way back to Raukaka we passed some beautiful scenery.
Just outside the forest we ran into this breath taking lookout. It had been rainy most of the day. This is the look of much of New Zealand, rolling hills, trees and lots of green.
The coast near Opononi.
This Anglican church was nestled in the countryside along our route. I thought it was so quaint. I can picture the church bells ringing and the vicar welcoming people each Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment