Kauri

Day5/6/7? (they’re all blending together)…Kauri Explorations….

Awoke to the sound of many small birds chirping loudly in the trees just behind the camper.

Hit the free showers, dressed, and got rolling. We had passed several areas I wanted to see on the way up to the cape, this is the day.

Kauri are huge ancient trees that now only grow in New Zealand, They grow quickly, breed as hermaphrodites, and have the characteristic of taking off for the forest canopy, then spreading out and developing a “head”, or wide ranging expanse of branches and leaves. As the tree gets the fuel needed from this head that now pokes high through the sunlight-stealing canopy, the trunk, long and slender, gradually widens. The tree barely changes diameter from root to head, with knot free straight grain. Perfect for woodworking, furniture, lumber, shipbuilding, etc., etc. As you can imagine, they were virtually harvested to extinction.





Now, they’re protected and are making a slow comeback.

The cool thing is, they’re prehistoric, dating back to before flowering plants. A species of pine ( though you’d never know it by looking at one-the leaves are thick broad flat arrowheads with a waxy coating), they’ve been flourishing here for thousands of years.



Went to a Kauri wood shop, they get their wood from logs long submerged in the swampy lowlands. Carbon dated to about 45000 years ago, these huge trees were almost perfectly preserved when an unknown catastrophic event buried virtually all of Northern N.Z. with up to 32m ( 100feet ) of sediment in one fell swoop. Since many of the tree trunks lie from east to west, the theory is a tsunami from a meteor hit in the Tasman sea swept across the country. This is the excavated stump of an ancient Kauri with our guide nearby for comparison…



Went to the “Gumdiggers Park” an area of lowlying swamp where for 80 years or so men worked at retrieving the hardened sap of these huge trees. They’d probe the boggy peat and underlying sandstone until one of their probes hit a buried trunk, then follow along to the roots, where there were chunks of this amber just lying there, having fallen from the tree for hundreds/thousands of years as it was still alive. They’d dig down by hand and excavate around, selling their finds. Younger “gum” was ground and made into a fine furniture polish/sealant/varnish, older resin was called N.Z. copal and fashioned into trinkets, and the oldest of all is declared amber and is classified a semi-precious stone. Saw a chunk with a fossilized mosquito in the shop, ala Jurassic Park.

As an aside, there were several pairs of rubber boots on display, the constant desire to stay drier and more comfortable during long days in the deep pits drove the industry, and to this day that’s the reason they’re known as “gum boots”.

Continued south, aiming for the forests of still-standing Kauri, including the biggest tree on the island, a massive beast just off the highway.




You round a bend in the short trail, there it is. Hard to find words to do the scale justice. Estimated to be 2000 years old, it kind of makes you sit and think for a while. Beautiful.




Continued toward the coast, foregoing the multiple interpretive walks. One tree was cool, but living in the Pacific Northwest with it’s own huge pine and spruce rainforest trees, and recently having taken a motorcycle trip to the California redwoods, the “big tree” quota’s been filled.

Getting used to driving a turbo on these twisted roads. The charger unit must be smaller sized, as it runs out of breath anywhere over 4000 rpms. Bit of lag, too, pulling all the weight. So, having to tip in the throttle about 3-5 seconds before you need the power is tough to get used to, but you can make the thing move along nicely. Really have to row through the shortish gears to keep it going well, too. Hit an indicated 160 (100mph). That’s about all the room I had, but, no sign of a limiter and there probably wasn’t much more in the thing.

Here’s the key…




Drivers. Out of the city, polite, courteous, even truckers pull to the shoulder to let you pass. Speed limit’s usually 100kph (60mph), regardless of whether or not it’s actually wise to do that speed on the road. (Usually it’s not.) Curves are well marked with directional arrows and recommended speed signs, which are more often than not accurate to 20kph. The rural roads are virtually continuous dotted lines, passing legal everywhere, up to you and your own stupidity as to when you attempt.

Multiple sections of dirt road, fun if you remember to keep right. The turbo gives a little boot to the rear tires, only to be thwarted by the electronic stability program voodoo, cutting power and braking the inside wheel. Been reading the manual, though, apparently it can be switched off. Stay tuned.

80’s music. EVERYWHERE. Let me say that again. EVERYWHERE.

Also, no asphalt shingles. Almost all the houses have tin/metal roofs, or tile.

Some foods we found and liked. A pineapple fritter, a slice of pineapple dipped in doughnut batter, deep fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar. Hot and good. Also, the potato chips here are different flavours, so far we like the roast chicken, lemon, and thyme, as well as the tzatziki flavor.

Rolled into the small cove of Bayleys beach for the night, tried unsuccessfully to upload some stuff onto Blogger, gave up, and slept.

Awoke to the sound of heavy raindrops.

Made our way to the showers, made a like breakfast, and got moving. We had one stop in mind, but today was to be a long day’s drive to Rotorua, the volcanic/thermal hot spot (couldn’t resist) on the North Island.

Rolled into a town to resupply, the old “drive right” habits coming back in the free for all that’s a large parking lot. Oops. No harm done, though.

Continued down the road, to a final Kauri museum, full of artifacts and full size displays of the sawmills and gum digger industry. Impressive , but sad to see how efficiently we can destroy an entire ecosystem in a few short years. Odd how everything was just lying out to touch, pick up, etc. Some mostly self-explanatory shots.....



















Grabbed a bite in the next-door café, then down to business. Through Auckland again, this time in rush hour traffic (not fun with six gears and a stiff clutch), onward to Rotorua.

Some random scenic panoramas…






Arrived in time to see the last of a beautiful golden sunset, paid for 2 nights, and cooked up some nice BBQ chicken on the grill. Currently typing and enjoying some local cabernet, it’ll be an early night yet again.

Hope to get some miles in on the bikes tomorrow as we explore. Goodnight.