The Forest Elders

A "young" Kauri

The first stop on our trip to Northland was the Waipoua Kauri forests on the west coast. For several nights we stayed at a wonderful campsite (decked out with hot showers and a communal kitchen) at the small but flourishing Trounson Kauri Park.

Murple at the Park

The 450 hectare forest is considered a “mainland island” because it has been completely surrounded by pasture and pine plantations. This park is particularly special because it was one of the first to implement a program to extensively trap introduced predators that have nearly exterminated ground-based native birds in some forests. The predators primarily consist of possums (adorable but despised in NZ), feral cats, stouts, ferrets and uncontrolled or feral dogs (one dog killed over 500 endangered kiwi, half of that forest’s population, in a single weekend). The effect was clear as we were greeted each day with a deafening roar of birdsong from the forest. It wasn't until we visited other reserves later that we realized how quiet many of the forests have become. At night we took to the wonderful forest paths in an attempt to spot the nocturnal kiwi. While no sightings were made, we did succeeded in hearing the kiwis call and were in awe of the glowworms which lit up the nooks in trees and fallen logs near the water.

On the trail through Trounson

Birds in the treetops as spotted from our campsite

These giant black ferns make great umbrellas : )

After spending a few days spent relaxing, exploring the forest and getting used to our new freedom, we left our first campsite in search of another and along the way visited the biggest and oldest Kauris in the entire country. Our first stop took us on a two hour hike through the forest with three destinations: the Four Sisters, Yakas and Te Matua Ngahere. We met Te Matua Ngahere first, or rather, we stood in awe and complete silence at the feet of this forest elder. Te Matua is the 2nd tallests Kauri, the widest and is thought to be between 1,500 and 2,000 years old. It truly was a humbling moment.

Te Matua Ngahere

Next, we arrived at the Four Sisters. These graceful and beautiful Kauris give some idea at how dense the trees were prior to European logging.

The Four Sisters

Last we stopped at the Yakas, named after a famous bushmen who spent his life in the forest. The Yakas is the 7th largest tree in NZ but that designation mattered little. Each Kauri we saw commanded such a presence that we found all of them awe inspiring in the fullest sense.


After a short ride further north we came to the biggest Kauri in New Zealand. Tane Mahuta is considered the Lord of the Forest and is thought to be around 2,000 years old. Tane is 150 ft tall and almost 40 ft in girth.

Tane Mahuta

Our short visit to the Kauri Museum several days earlier gave us an idea of how these magnificent beings, like our redwoods back home, had been used. The museum focused primarily on the history of logging and how the kauri had been turned into furniture, lumber, decorative objects, etc. The amber from the trees, Kauri gum, was dug by Scots and Maori labor from swamps as were the preserved remains of trees that had been lying in the swamps for nearly 50,000 years… Despite this sad past, progress has been made to preserve these iconic trees and create safe havens for the unique and exotic birds that call the kauri forests home.

The trees of the west coast gave us our first real sense of the voice of the land and we found ourselves equally inspired by what we found observed further north.