Kauri bark

Today was all about Kauri.  

When we started researching "what to do" in New Zealand, W found stuff about Waipoua forest, and it was one of our "must dos".  When we visited the i-site in Warkworth, they tried to persuade us that the drive from here, about 2 and a half hours, wasn't worth it, and to visit more local kauri was just as good. Once they realised that we were definitely committed to a visit, they were very good and suggested things to do en route.

So we were on the road by 0800 this morning.  We stopped at just after 0900 at the Kauri Museum, at Matekohe, and spent 2hrs learning about logging, timber mills, and gum collecting.  It was an excellent, but huge, museum.  We could have stayed all day and still not seen it all.

We then drove on, and after reaching Waipoua Forest, found that the signage was not great.  I suspect this is deliberate.  Due to kauri die back, a fungal disease that is killing the few remaining kauri trees, the Department of Conservation are not keen to encourage visitors to the forest.  But we did eventually find our way to various big trees.  

I took photos, but none capture the immensity of the trees - the first one we visited was Te Matua Ngahere, "The father of the forest".  Its girth is 16.4m.  We also saw Tane Mahuta, which has a smaller girth, but a taller trunk, so its mass is greater.  

After our visit we had our first ice cream of the holiday, flavoured with Feijoa.  We'd never come across this fruit before, and initially assumed it was native - it's certainly very popular with the locals, but on researching, I see that it was first found in Brazil, so I assume it is yet another introduced species.  

We then drove back to our apartment via a scenic route and a pizza takeout.