weegirl
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North Island ▷ Northland ▷ Dargaville ▷
Waipoua Forest Camping Area
We normally dawdle on road trips following any “historic site” road sign we see however this time we belted along all the way to the Blah, Blah, Blah café in Dargeville a place that has food as good as
Plant a kauri in the Waipoua Forest
anything on Ponsonby Rd. We surprised ourselves by getting there in two and half hours from Auckland so had time to visit Oranga Whenua, the Reforestation Project in the middle of the Waipou Forest.
Bev Sanderson, the livewire who manages the Waipoua Forest Visitor Centre took us on a walk through the forest, which the local iwi Te Roroa has recently taken over. They have an utterly beautiful camping ground amongst trees and by the river, as well as huts and whole houses that can be rented really cheaply for holidays. It is so hard to find a beautiful camp site these days because so many have been destroyed and replaced by high-rise.
The land was taken illegally by the crown in 1890 and run by the Forest Service until it was disestablished in the 1980s and given to DOC. Neither could make a go of it and now, as the result of a recent treaty settlement, Te Roroa have got the land back. They do not have full use of all the land yet until the pine trees have been milled. The vision is to reforest all the scrubland left after the milling to re-establish a kauri forest right to the sea. Te Roroa’s descendants will have to carry on the work. They are establishing an economically sustainable tourist business, which will provide ongoing benefits to their people. A tangible way to help make the forest grow is to plant a kauri tree, which we did but I am feeling bad, as we did not put the water in the hole before the tree. We will get regular updates on the life of our tree. waipouavc@teroroa.iwi.nz
From there we meandered slowly through what is probably the most beautiful road in the country, to Omapere.
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North Island ▷ Northland ▷ Hokianga ▷
Footprints Waipoua
We rugged up and were picked up by our two guides Bill & Tawhiti for four hours in the Waipoua Forest.
It was not all walking as there were many stops seeing medicinal plants and learning abut the ecosystem, all of which was presented with non stop humour. We visited the huge trees Tane Mahuta and the Four Sisters but the highlight for me was seeing Te Matua Ngahere. We had been watching our feet, walking in pitch dark by then, came around the corner and there was this huge 4000 year old giant which Bill lit up with spot lights. It is not as tall as Tane Mahuta but has a girth of 5 metres. Both Tawhiti, who has a booming voice like Mario Lanza, and Bill sang waiata to all the trees we visited. It was an extraordinary tour. For some inexplicable reason I felt a huge sense of sadness for Te Matua Ngahere which is at least 2000 years older than any of the other kauris around it.
All in all, our time in the Hokianga was wonderful and we are already planning a return trip.