Te Matua Ngahere Walk

Te Matua Ngahere Walk

Waipoua Forest

10 Rankers Reviews

1 Walking

10 Hokianga

Your Nature Guide

Marios Gavalas's avatar

Marios Gavalas

Author And Researcher

Nau mai, haere mai

Nau mai, haere mai

I'm Marios, delivering the best of Aotearoa's nature walks to your device.

I've personally walked hundreds of New Zealand's tracks and spent months in libraries uncovering interesting information on New Zealand/Aotearoa. And you'll find a slice of that research on this page - enjoy!

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Photos

Father of the Forest - Matua Ngahere

Information

Te Matua Ngahere Walk

1.5 km return | 40 minutes return

Te Matua Ngahere means ‘Father of the Forest’. A humbling tree to be in the presence of.

The enormous bulk of the trunk and crowded clefts of the decaying upper branches are the clothes of age.

Walking Track

Access

The kauri walks are signposted 11km north of Waipoua River Road and 1km south of Tane Mahuta on S.H.12. The car park is sign posted by a brown Transit NZ sign “Kauri Walks”. At times, the sign is obscured by vegetation so be alert upon approaching as you can easily miss it.

There is a large parking area where your vehicle will be guarded for a small fee.

Track

From the carpark follow the wide, even and metalled track for 7 minutes to the three way junction.

Te Matua Ngahere is signposted straight ahead. The track continues to be metalled with substantial boardwalks.

It is very important that you keep to the walking track at all times. The Kauri tree has very sensitive surface roots, and foot traffic around the tree endangers their life span.

Flora

“Te Matua Ngahere” (Father of the Forest) is the second largest living Kauri tree in New Zealand. He is also noted as being the oldest out of the two largest living Kauri trees and is estimated to exceed 2000 year old. He was discovered by Nicholas Yakas in 1928 when he and other men were working to build the road that is now known as State Highway 12.

His girth is the greatest of all kauri at 16.41 metres. His squat appearance relates to a height of 29.87 metres. He is probably hollow on the inside. Measured by the quantity of merchantable timber, he is the second largest known kauri.

Details

Feature Value Info

Organisation

DOC Northland

Central government organisation

Location

North IslandNorthlandHokianga

Categories

  • Activity__walking_and_trekkingWalking
  • Free

Directions

To Coordinates

Coordinates

-35.6094065946372

173.533480072021

Latitude
-35.6094065946372
Longitude
173.533480072021

Nearby

Reviews

    • Those Kauri trees are absolutly magnificent!
    • The oldest Giant Kauri, is very impressive.
    • Beautiful trees.
    • Nice walk to the Kauri trees.
    • Very impressive trees, forest and coast.
    Rating Count Percentage
    10/10 2
    20%
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    8/10 5
    50%
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    5/10 0
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    4/10 0
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  • 4.0/5

    Nice walk to the Kauri trees.

    For us, this was really impressive.

    Reviewed over 7 years ago and experienced in October 2016

  • 5.0/5

    Even better than Tane Mahuta!!

    Peaceful place. Try to avoid tourist groups if you can!

    Reviewed over 7 years ago and experienced in October 2016

  • 4.0/5

    The track in the very nice bush is interesting, flat and with some explanations around the trees.

    And at the end, impressive! Te Matua is majestic and very amazing.

    Reviewed over 8 years ago

  • 3.5/5

    This is really impressive - it is the father of the forest and the thickest living kauri tree.

    Reviewed over 9 years ago

  • 4.5/5

    Very impressive trees, forest and coast.

    SH12 a bit scary in some places.

    Reviewed almost 12 years ago

  • 4.0/5

    Nice to see large trees, good information available.

    Reviewed almost 12 years ago

  • 5.0/5

    Amazing seeing the hugh Kauri trees - one is over 2000 years old, beautiful forest.

    Reviewed over 12 years ago and experienced in February 2012

  • 4.0/5

    The oldest Giant Kauri, is very impressive.

    Reviewed over 13 years ago

  • 4.5/5

    Those Kauri trees are absolutly magnificent!

    Reviewed almost 15 years ago

  • 4.0/5

    Beautiful trees.

    Spiritual, mystery!

    Reviewed over 15 years ago