blog/2021-11-09-whangarei.md

layout, title, category, date

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post	Whangarei & Tutukaka	Travel	2021-11-03 21:25:00 +0200

In Progress _{White-naped Petrel in flight in Tutukaka bay, near Poor Knight's Islands}

A short several hour bus drive north of Auckland lay the medium township of Whangarei - one of the last bastions of the mighty Kaori, and the only one near civilization.

Whangarei (pronounced Fangarei - Wh is F in Te Reo - as I learned from the amused bus driver when boarding for 'Pangarei'. Yikes.). Wait. Anyway.

Whangarei is not a typical stop on the route of most backpackers (defenitley not the 'Hummus Trail' of Israeli backpackers), who head straight up north to the Bay of Islands. Myself, however, keen to visit every nook and cranny in Aotearoa I could easily reach, opted for a few daysen-route north - and I'm very glad I did.

All around the township lay a special type of forest - a Kaori forest. The Kaori is a dinosaur tree - an old, now rare organism of great beauty. Kaoris are mildly basic - and as they shed bark and leaves the ground becomes basic as well, denying other trees and enriching new Kaoris. The forests they inhabit are interspread with grouping of young Kaori around an elder tree amongst clumps of hardy ferns, trees, and tree ferns.

Being rare and relatively slow growing, Kaori forest are surrounded by lush Kiwi bush, at the heart of which lay the Kaori heartlands - traversing these phases is quite the experience.

_{In most of Whangarei, you're no further than a five minute walk from sights such as these.}

After the rough, unformed terrain of Rangitoto just a day prior, the rich forest of Whangarei presents a whole different light. The sun slits softly through rich canopy, the leaves of low ferns are damp and a soft breeze whistles through the trees. The tranquility in these woods is captivating.

My hostel was a mere five minutes from Whangarei Falls - a magnificent gateway to the Kaori heartlands. At the end of each day, you can simply opt for a short walk through nature and circle back to the falls - a priviledge I remember fondly to this day. What a life!

_{I really enjoyed slipping into my sneakers and coming here to read a good book as the sun set. When I could no longer read clearly in the fading light - I would back.}

Once you wander deep enough into the forest, you'll encounter a fence, alongside a carpet and a spray bottle to disinfect your shoes - the Kaori are suspectpable to a fungus which grows outside, and so you sanitize before entering. This was a local act of pride - under the slogan 'Save our Kaori!'. How kind!

And finally, you are under the canopy of the elders. You are in a Kaori forest.

_{Pictured here are a pair of young Kaoris. Old Kaoris grow over 50 meters tall and live for hundreds of years!}

The Kaoris have a special, flaky tri-colored bark and small, matted round-ish leaves. The bark looks a bit porous and the proportions just seem 'off' - these trees are further down the evolutionary path than most you might encounter.

_{Close-up of a bark of an older Kaori tree. Moss grows sporadically on the bark giving them a spotted appearance.}

The Kaori were once spread accross most of Aotearoa, throughout the North Island and the northern regions of the South Island as well. They were prized by the Maori as wood for their Wakas - the shipwrights would often hollow a pair of trunks, tie them elaborately toghether with rope made from native flax ( Harakeke in Te Reo) and treated with salt water. The results were long, water-tight great Wakas used for travel, hunting and war parties.

The colonizers from England ( Pakeha ) valued the Kaori for its' beautiful, hard sap, as well as wood for luxury furniture - the forest were logged extensively and the prized wood and sapped exported throughout Europe. The results of both uses were devastating; less than 1% of the original Kaori forest remains, all in the northen reaches of the North island.

Standing under something so old, so rare and endangered really helps things sink in perspective.

Also abundant in the forest is the Silver Fern, New Zealand's national emblem. These ferns look like any other - until you flip the underside to see it completely silver!

The Maori hunters considered the ferns a gift - under the light of the moon, they would flip some of the leaves and find their way home after a long voyage of foraging.

_{The name suits them better than you might think - they are quite silver.}

I stayed for a relatively long time in Whangarei - about as much as I have in Auckland - and much of that time was spent in the forests and gorgeous meadows around it.

_{The climb to Mount Parihaka ( War Dance ), where the Kaoris hold the higher ranges and relegate the rest to the bush.}

_{Once the site of a large Maori settlement ( pa ), today a WWII memorial sits atop the mountain and glows red at night - visible in Whangarei itself.}

_{A Manuka bush, common throughout New Zealand. The honey made from the Manuka is a prized delicacy.}