Ancient Forests & Giant Trees

Monday

The Bay of Islands via the West Coast

One of the Really Useful things about friends is that they can save you hours of swotting up in the Rough Guide as to routes, places & pitfalls.  So with loads of recommendations we headed west to Dargaville with our Tourist Radio now fully utilised with the 'ping-ping' letting us know where we were approaching together with the history, botanics, local 'speak' & the 'XYZ Top Ten Holiday Park'.  

The countryside was pretty sparsely populated with only a few homesteads, little traffic & the only town of significance, albeit with a bit wild west feel to to it was Dargaville.  From here the main road headed northwards, in fact there only was one road north, so no chance of getting lost.  Signs pointing to isolated beaches boasting impressive surf opportunities & lonely farmsteads, whilst the hills which had been stripped of trees leaving only the bleached trunks heaped in piles like discarded bones of some vast leviathan.  The once densely forested area was somewhat bleak, l guess all in the name of agriculture.

Our route continued, eventually bringing us to the sight we had really looked forward to seeing, the vast Waipoura Forest.  As we approached the National Park, we discovered the NZ roadworks team at work.  No sign of closing roads, using traffic lights or marshalling traffic more a case of fend for yourselves & on an almost deserted road this worked brilliantly.

The road hugged the contours lapped by dense 'shrubbery'.  Tree ferns drooped over the road, whilst further back the huge Kauri trees, reached up to the heavens.   Now, l am very partialled to tree ferns & would love to be able to grow them at home, but here these were fantastic. so many varieties, tall ones, short ones, fat ones,  l could go on & on.  The road was like being in 'tree heaven'.

On the Kauri forest drive, there are several stopping-off places as well as DOC park stop-offs, [you  receive a DOC booklet when you collect the camper], we stopped for lunch in the small car park with a trail that leads through the forests to Te Matua Ngahere, the father of the forest.  Again, amazingly, there were very few visitors.

The temperature was not too bad, so after dropping off a $2 donations to a bearded & bush-hat-wearing warden who observed us keenly as we squelched & brushed our shoes through the biosecurity hazard, we set off along the boardwalk, heading deep into the forest.

The kauri forest contains a vast abundance of various plants, trees & shrubs, many of which are familiar as houseplants back in the UK.  Many of the trees carry species tags, for example the taraire, kohekohe, towai & northern rata.  Below the forest canopy of the mature kauri are tall, dense, clumps of kauri grass, a plethora of ferns & mosses.  All really interesting whilst the size & girth of the main exhibit was well & truly awesome.

As the afternoon rolled on, we once again took to the road with the end goal of the Russell Top Ten Holiday Park, set in the GPS.  Route 12 took us north along the coast passing through Omapere, with the huge sand dunes of Nuia on the far side of the large inlet of Hokianga Harbour.

The road now followed the valley eastwards passing through small settlements reaching the coast at Pahia. We were now not far from our destination.  The road hugged the shoreline travelling southwards to the ferry at Opua, now the emptiness of the west coast was replaced by fine houses & floating gin palaces & serious sport fishing boats.  The ferry itself, you just turn up a queue then pay by length, [was very similar to the one on Lake Windermere that crosses to Far Sawrey], carried us sedately across the natural harbour to the far shore.  

We were now on the homeward run, driving past oyster & mussel farms the road curved around scenic coves to the former pirates hideaway, Russell, which, as we drove past the clapper board houses on the main street  towards our overnight stop, looked all very affluent & civilised.

Total mileage - 152 miles