Our base in Northland, a 230km drive north from Auckland, was next door to the Trounson Kauri Park. This is an inland island of forest surrounded by a sea of farmland gifted to the Crown by James Trounson, an early settler. The park is managed to keep out predators so that Kiwi are able to thrive. The magnificent Kauri trees are also protected by providing a walkway and boardwalk that ensures the delicate feeding roots are not damaged.
Trounson Kauri Park Boardwalk
Kauri Tree
Helping with the maintenance!
The Kauri trees in Trounson are impressive enough but we knew that these were just a taster of what was to come. Our route to our next stop in the Far North would take us past some of the title contenders for New Zealand's (and so World's) biggest Kauri.
Arrival at the Waipoua Forest was heralded by some of the most challenging twisty and narrow driving we've encountered in all our visits here. Hard to believe that this is State Highway 1. After around 10km of arm wrestling the van around bends that are crumbling into the valley, we found the parking area for walks into the forest.
We chose the 1 hour loop walk to "Yakas", a large Kauri named after a gum digger from the Balkans. We heard that Yakas was the most accessible, and although only No. 7 in the league table, it was indeed accessible. It has hard to give some sense of the scale of these trees but this is our best attempt.
Yakas
A further 2km drive along SH 1, is the more tour bus friendly Tane Muhata (or Lord of the forest), the biggest Kauri in NZ. A mere 100m from the roadside means it is a popular stop on typical tours to 90 mile Beach and Cape Reinga. But it only took a few minutes wait for the large group of Danish tourists to finish their photo shoot and we then had the Lord to ourselves.
Tane Muhata
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