Te Matua Ngahere Walk
Te Matua Ngahere Walk
Waipoua Forest
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Information
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.
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
Easy walk
30 mins to 1 hour
Easy access short walk
DOC Managed
Contact
Reviews
Robert Wolf
Ranking: 8/10
Nice walk to the Kauri trees. For us, this was really impressive.
Guilhem
Ranking: 10/10
Even better than Tane Mahuta!! Peaceful place. Try to avoid tourist groups if you can!
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Yoomm
Ranking: 8/10
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.
Timo Krueger
Ranking: 7/10
This is really impressive - it is the father of the forest and the thickest living kauri tree.
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Reijenga
Ranking: 9/10
Very impressive trees, forest and coast. SH12 a bit scary in some places.
Pietersen
Ranking: 8/10
Nice to see large trees, good information available.
Thank You - to the thousands of travellers that have contributed to our Top Voted NZ Activities Map - it's free from Rankers.
Liz Stokes
Ranking: 10/10
Amazing seeing the hugh Kauri trees - one is over 2000 years old, beautiful forest.
J van de Vlekkert
Ranking: 8/10
The oldest Giant Kauri, is very impressive.
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mariekef
Ranking: 9/10
Those Kauri trees are absolutly magnificent!
richardh
Ranking: 8/10
Beautiful trees. Spiritual, mystery!
DOC Managed
Thanks to all the good people working for the NZ Department of Conservation - for all your hard work - making NZ more beautiful, accessable and healthy! Cheers 😍
Nick Morrison
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