22nd April - Kaiku to Kerikeri

Not satisfied with the night walk, the next morning after leaving the camp we went back to the park and did the walk by ourselves, a couple from the night walk were also there.

We got a clearer look at the kauri trees, weta and ferns etc.
It was a lovely walk, the forest was a lot bigger than it seemed at night and had a lot of kauri trees.

There are two main type of tree fern in New Zealand, the black and the silver. In the old days the Maori would use the silver fern fronds to help reflect light onto their path. It's also the national plat and is used as the New Zealand All Blacks rugby and Black Caps cricket emblem ( amongst other things)






There is group of kauri trees in the forest, called the Four Sisters, which are two trees which split to form four trunks.

Another two trees had joined at ground level and looked like upside down legs stuck into the ground.

We went along route 12 to see the biggest kauri tree in New Zealand, "Tane Mahuta" in the Waipoua National Forest. This tree has a trunk circumference = 540 inches (45 feet) 13.6m , is 169 feet high with an estimated wood volume of 8,635 cubic feet. They estimate it to be 2,100 years Its massive, smooth, gray-white trunk rises 59 feet before a branch appears.

There was a bigger tree, on the slopes of Tutamoe, above Kaihu, stood Kairaru. This awesome tree was over three times larger than Tane Mahuta—perhaps 15,997 cubic feet of timber—larger than today's greatest redwoods, and, in its day, the largest tree in the world. It is likely that Kairaru was over 4,000 years old when fire destroyed it in the 1880's.

From ere we travelled to the Ngawha Hot Springs for a soak. It is popular with the local Maori. There are 8 pools each with different temperature. It's a simple place, no commercialism here.

We still stink of sulphur even after a couple of showers. The springs also have minerals in them that turned my silver ring black! It's slowly changing back but it was a shock.

We camped at Kerikeri. A lovely campsite reached by driving down a steep hill towards the valley.

The kitchen is huge with about 20 burners as well as fridges and sinks. There were a lot of backpackers cooking pasta dishes! We cooked our marinated pork chops and ate them with kumara (sweet potatoes).

Texted Sze (Jo-Ann's brother) with the numbers of the sze of the Kauri tree so he could by 4D (a Singaporean type of lottery)

21st April - Orewa to Kaihu

Left Orewa and travelled along State Highway 1 (SH1) to Warkworth.

We took a detour to Leigh and Omaha Bay. Came across a tiny fishing village which was very pretty. Jo-Ann spoke to a fisherman but he had not been able to go to sea as there was no fuel in town. Fish typically caught there are red snapper, blue cod and lobster, mussels and scallops.

We then drove to Akiri Beach for lunch. While Jo-Ann cooked a wonderful meal of pumpkin and chicken soup, I went with Jo-Ann's mum for a walk on the beach and watched a couple of fishermen and surfers.
After lunch I decided to have a go with my fishing rod in a small stream but - of course - nothing.

We then continue driving towards Wellsford. The views of the mountains, sea and beaches were great!!
Continued up the East coast of Northland, stopped at Woolworths in Dargaville for provisions and eventually arrived at our campsite at Top 10 in Kaihu.

It is a small and very well maintained site and the people running it were nice & friendly.

There were also some kids on inner tubes trying to sail down the river! (Aaah. Back in Inyanga over Easter)


We booked ourselves on a night walk through the nearby Trounson Kauri Park forest in the hope of seeing a kiwi bird.

We hurried our dinner (chicken, broccoli and noodles) so we could meet or guide, Herb, at 7:30 pm.

The aim f the walk was to find a kiwi bird, so 12 of us took a small coach and arrived at the park about 8 km from the campsite.

It was a full moon so that we could see quite a lot without the torches we were given and of which we were told how NOT to use them.

In the first 3 minutes of the walk we saw a possum and then an old disused kiwi nest, empty for 10 years.

We walked a round but didn't see a Kiwi but heard one close by - very loud. We also introduced to the great Kauri tree. We saw several giant trees of about 700 to 800 years old and one estimated to be abut 1200 years old.

We saw Weta that eat the dead Kauri - about 45 cm long including their feelers with bodies about 4 or 5 cm long. Herb said that the Weta had ears on it's knees - a lot like a teenager then!

We also say an eel, a kauri fish and 3 crayfish in a tiny stream pool.

Unfortunately we saw no kiwi. A young boy with us said that he had been out 20 times and had never seen a kiwi - a bit of a jinx then?