Kauri Coast

Now that we had made it all the way to the northern tip it was time to head back south. Our plan (such as it was) was to head towards the Coromandel peninsula which is south and then east of Aukland. While this could be done in one day this meant repeating the route we had taken north. Besides, other than our attempt to get to the Tasman Sea by conquering the dunes, we had not spent any time on the west coast of the north island. Thus we decided to make a town called Dargaville our destination. This would do several things for us: it would take us on new roads; several of them would be back roads; it would take us on a small ferry; it would take to the Waipoua forest and along a section of the west coast known as the kauri coast. Centuries ago, the Northlands forests were dominated by kauri trees. These massive, straight-trunked trees were prized for their timber and the guide books tells that the forests were largely depleted by the 1790's. But, just like the odd old growth groves in BC, a few giant kauri remain and we wanted to see them. It's not all that easy to travel east to west in the Northlands. The only main highway stays along the east coast, but after some discussion and advice from a local we set off cross country to make for a village called Kohukohu. From there a ferry would take us across the Hokianga Harbour to Rawene and from there we could drive out to Opononi which is right on the coast at the northern end of the kauri coast road.

The Hokianga Harbour ferry is a more direct route to the west coast

It wasn't that far to travel, but, it seems the less traveled the road, the twistier it gets. We drove along some lovely rural roads but in several sections we would be clinging to the side of a very steep section negotiating hairpin turns on roads that looked like they might get washed away In the next rainstorm or might collapse if I was too close to the edge. I really enjoyed these sections, Julie, not so much (I was driving). Hokianga Harbour is not very wide but incises the west coast deeply. The ferry cut maybe two hours off our trip and allowed us to drive along highway 12 through the forested areas once home to all the big trees.

High traffic pathways protect the forest floor

The largest living kauri tree even has a name: Tane Mahuta means "the king of the forest" and let me tell you, it lives up to it's name. This tree is estimated to be over 1,500 years old and is of massive proportion, dwarfing everything around it. The trunk has a girth of 46 feet and retains that size from the forest floor to the first massive branches about 150 feet above.

With grayish bark the tree is surrounded by lush green forest growth with a canopy maybe 40 feet up. It was sort of like seeing an enormous elephant leg as it seemed so out of place with the rest of the forest. We spent a couple of hours walking to several different kauri groves, but none of them matched the astonishing Tane Mahuta. My photos don't do it justice. It is too massive and the forest too dense so you cannot adequately capture it on film. (or digitally, but you know what I meant)

Tane Mahuta is Mauri for: 'the king of the forest' the largest living Kauri tree in NZ.

Upon arrival at that night's lodgings we discovered that they were miles away from any towns or grocery stores and we had failed to provision ourselves for dinner.

Variation on a ford

The proprietors knew this well and in the office was a cooler with milk and beer, a shelf with mushy peas and baked beans and a freezer full of ice cream and.... Pies. We had a choice - drive 30 minutes or defrost a couple of meat pies. We chose the mince and the meat lover's spicy. This and a can of beans were more than music to our ears that night.