Peaks and Places | Travel and Adventure Blog

As we headed out of the Northland and towards the South, we had to stop at the Waipoua Forest, home of the famous Kauri trees. In size, these trees come second only to the mighty Sequoias. These trees are found elsewhere in New Zealand, but this forest in particular is home to Tane Mahuta, the largest Kauri tree in the county. Tane Mahuta, which means ‘The Lord of the Forest’ in Mauri, was a short hike from the parking lot, and well worth the stop. Upon entering the trail, there was a station to stop and scrub off your boots and sanitize them, before entering the trail. This is to help prevent the spread of potentially dangerous organisms from getting into the forest and damaging the trees. There were many Kauri trees there, but Tane Mahuta was the largest one. Its true age is unknown, but it is said to be well over 2,000 years old.

A short hike a little further down the road will take you to an older tree, Tane Matua, or ‘Father of the Forest.’ While not quite as tall as Tane Mahuta, it was much wider, and in our opinion, more impressive. This tree is older than Tane Mahuta, estimated to be between 2,500 and 3,000 years old. There were several other hikes in the area to other significant Kauri trees, but they were currently closed for maintenance to to prevent the spread of dieback disease, which is currently plaguing the trees in the area. There were lots of small Kauri trees (about 4 inch diameter) along the path, but upon talking to a park ranger at the entry of the trail, we learned that they were actually about 150 years old. These trees are known to grow a maximum of 0.35m in height and 0.7cm in width per year! This makes the much larger, older trees we saw all the more impressive.

As we continued our southern trek, I wanted to stop by Kaitoke Regional Park, which was the filming location for Rivendell and the Fords of Isen in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. There was a short hike to Rivendell, as well as to a nearby suspension bridge. The suspension bridge was really cool, overlooking a pristine river. Heading on to Rivendell, we came across the only remaining piece of the set, an arch. After spending some time walking through the surrounding forests, we headed back to the car to continue going south. As an avid Lord of the Rings fan, it was really cool for me to get to see a little piece of the movie set still remaining.

Sadly, these were among the many photos lost with my SD card somewhere in Wellington…. We definitely plan on being back in the area later, so I will just have to go back and take more photos!