Tane Mahuta – the largest kauri tree. The tree is estimated to be about 2,000 years old. It is 51.5 meters (168 ft) tall and the trunk girth is 13.8 Meters (45 ft). In Maori Cosmology, Tane is the son of Ranginui the sky father and Papatuanuku the earth mother. Tane tore his parents apart, breaking their primal embrace, to bring light, space, and air and allowing life to flourish.
Today, in the rain, we started traveling down the upper west coast and after a ferry ride came to the Waipou Forest where a few of the remaining Kauri trees stand tall. These magnificent huge trees (not quite as big as the giant sequoias) originally covered a large part of the north part of the North Island, but most of them were cut down to be used for the masts of large sailing vessels and for buildings. Their gum (sap) was also used to make excellent varnishes and adhesives. In order to get the gum, holes were dug to get at the roots and the people who did this were called gum diggers. In the early 1900’s, the Waipou forest was set aside and protected after a public outcry (which was the first action in the early conservation movement).
Most of names of the communities and places here originate from the Maori. With the very different spelling and pronunciation, it makes it very interesting in trying to type names correctly and enter them into our GPS system. Maybe if we stayed here a very long time we would get used to the names.
After 5 days on the road we have started to realize that this country is larger than we thought. With the roads being so winding and with very few straight roads, it takes much longer to get from one place to the next. We thought that 50 days would be more than enough to see everything we wanted to see on both islands, but now we are going to have to be more selective in what to stop and see. We now see why some people spend 6 months here.
Most of names of the communities and places here originate from the Maori. With the very different spelling and pronunciation, it makes it very interesting in trying to type names correctly and enter them into our GPS system. Maybe if we stayed here a very long time we would get used to the names.
After 5 days on the road we have started to realize that this country is larger than we thought. With the roads being so winding and with very few straight roads, it takes much longer to get from one place to the next. We thought that 50 days would be more than enough to see everything we wanted to see on both islands, but now we are going to have to be more selective in what to stop and see. We now see why some people spend 6 months here.
Waves cascading over offshore sand bars at Arai Te Uru.
Lush green plants in the Waipou rain forest.
A red beaked gull. Notice the red beak, red feet, and red circle around the eye.
2 comments:
Lucien and Mardi are listening to the updates and enjoying the pics. They'll be glad there is another for them to check out this afternoon. Lucien is really excited and brings his map to see where you are. It's almost like we are there.... well maybe not 'almost', but we do wish we were there. It sounds soooo fun!
Lucien really likes the red footed bird. Red is his "really favorite color in the whole live world! I'm not kidding! I'm serious and I like blue too. It's a little bit down than red."
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