Another reason to visit Northland is for its big trees. Kauri Forests used to be fairly widespread across the country but like with most things in this world humans have since destroyed most of them. Only a few remain on the western edge of the Northland peninsular and the nice people at DOC have gone about putting in trails to the biggest and best of them in the Waipoua Forest.
Despite the guidebook saying they were big it is not until you are standing under them that you appreciate how big they actually are. First we visited the biggest of them all Tane Mahuta, or the Lord of the Forest, which is probably around 2000 years old. So much has happened in human history during this time, mainly the whole of modern history. This is impressive in itself and during this period it has grown to 51.2m high with a trunk girth of 13.77m.
Also worth a look was the Four Sisters (four trees next to one another), Cathedral Grove (lots of Kauri Trees), and Te Matua Ngahere. This is the Father of the Forest and despite not being as tall as it neighbours it is rather fat with a girth at over 16m. To get there is a nice peaceful walk through the woods. It is a relaxing place which really makes you appreciate these wonders of nature.
To put these sizes into context here is me hugging another one of the trees…
