NZ trip: Kauri

We farewell Jo and Tony, and head north.

Firstly, we visit the Kauri Museum in Matakohe, which has amongst other things:

• a serious chainsaw collection
• a Caterpillar 60, a tractor that replaced something like 120 bullocks!
• a middle section of a recently chopped down Kauri (it was dead).

Then we went to the Waipoua Forest, and walked to the Four Sisters, Te Matua Ngahere (The Father of the Forests: over 5 metres in diameter and could be over 2000 years old) and Tane Mahuta (God of the Forests: the largest tree in NZ, and approx 1200-2000 years and 51 metres tall).

Then we went to Trounson Kauri Park on the way to Whangarei. It had a loop-walk which if anything was more spectacular than the Waipoua Forest walks in terms of sheer number of large Kauri trees.

Had a good steak dinner in Dargaville, and found Len and Pauline's house in Whangarei.

Photos are here.