Paihia to Omapere - the Kauri Forest at Night

We drove from Paihia, Bay of Islands, on the Pacific Ocean (the East side of the North Island), to Omapere on the Tasman Sea (the West side of the North Island), stopping at Kerikeri to visit the candy shop that the Lonely Planet highly recommends. I got macadamia nut caramel corn and Miriam picked chocolate covered caramels with walnuts.

For those readers who visit NZ in the future, I recommend the Kerikeri candy shop, but I also recommend that you not consume an entire bag of macadamia nut caramel corn on the trip from Kerikeri to Omapere, as we did.

We got to Omapere midafternoon and checked into a very nice room Miriam booked for us that overlooked the bay. It had its own veranda, a separate bedroom and bathroom, and was pretty new. A big change from Cap’n Bob’s, it almost felt too opulent.

Miriam had booked us on a night tour of the nearby Kauri forest, which is the largest remaining Kauri forest in NZ. Kauri trees are very large hardwood trees with massive girth. They were used extensively for furniture and ship building because the wood was easy to work, resisted the weather, and was available in incredibly massive timbers. It was so good that it was almost completely logged off. The Kauri forests that once covered a large portion of the North Island are no more, and it is now against NZ law to cut down a living Kauri tree.

Our tour guides picked us up in a passenger van at about 6:00 pm. Again we were lucky, and only one other couple had booked the walk that evening: Matt and Angela. They were from Australia and on their honeymoon.

Our guides were two Mauri men. Joe, the older one who developed the night tour, was taller than me and slender with a hawk’s nose and a long black ponytail. He used to work for the NZ “DOC” (the Department of Conservation). His duties, among other things, included finding and killing brush tailed possums. The possums are not a native species, have no significant predators, and are decimating NZ indigenous animals, including the kiwi.

Dane, the younger guide, was much taller than me with a round face and a round body. He seemed quite shy, and had a very nice singing voice.

This tour was fun, in part because it was many miles away from what you might call “slick.” Joe was a bit hard to understand, and Dane, who spoke very rapidly, even harder. Joe clearly had worked up a set spiel for the trip, and was at pains to stay on track and not to omit anything. Dane would occasionally lose his place or forget something and look embarrassed. They carried pictures of the local birds (including kiwi), played us a tape of different bird calls on our drive to the forest, and talked a bit about the area and their lives.

We went on two different trails. We went on the first before the sun had set, and passed by an area that the Maori had cleared of trees to help them hunt kiwi. The Maori used kiwi feathers for cloaks; the cloaks were a sign of status. We could clearly see the three different heights of forest plants; the underbrush, the middle, or shorter trees, and the tall trees. But from that place could not see any kauri trees.

We walked deeper into the forest and it got darker. We each carried headlamps, and I had an umbrella in case the mist turned to rain. The guides had more powerful lamps with reddish filters. At one point they had us drop our heads and look only at our feet while we walked about 50 yards. They then instructed us to turn to our left and look up. We beheld a truly massive Kauri tree, and oohed and aahed about it.

They the guides told us to turn around; behind us was a giant Kauri tree that dwarfed then one that had just so impressed us. The giant tree is reckoned to be the oldest living Kauri. Its age is guestimated in our books to be over 2000 years. Because of the semitropical climate without distinct seasons, Kauri and other trees in this part of NZ do not reliably develop growth rings the way trees to in the Pacific NW, so determining the age of these trees is more of an art than it is at home. Our guides told us the giant was almost 5000 years old.

We walked back to the van and drove to another trail. This time it was dark when we walked into the forest, and we had to use lights to see where we place our feet. This time the guides led us to within about 50 yards of the largest living Kauri. The forest was quite dense, and it was dark, so we had no idea we were approaching this tree, called Tane Mahuta. The guides then began a chant in Mauri, announcing our visit to the king of the forest. We walked to the tree, listening to the chant. Although the sky was dark and cloudy there was plenty of moonlight, and when we got to Tane Mahuta it was magnificent. It almost seemed to glow, and it was huge. Our guides then talked and chanted in Maori, and then Dane played a native flute and swung a bullroarer rhythmically while Joe chanted and told us about the tree.

We were given hot chocolate and then walked back. Joe pointed out a very large nocturnal spider that weaves a blanket-like web, and a kind of forest cricket with 3 inch antennae.

We understood that we were supposed to be looking for wildlife (maybe even kiwis, which are nocturnal) on our way back, so we thought we should be walking quietly and keeping our lights off or dimmed.

Evidently we misunderstood because Joe and Angela took the lead, merrily swinging their lights, crunching the gravel, and talking in loud voices about the increase in housing prices in Perth, where Angela is from.

Miriam and I dropped back and tried to imagine we were alone in the forest.

At the end Joe gave us each a piece of Kauri gum and reminded us of the preciousness of life. It was a really good tour and I highly recommend it. However, I do note that the Mauri were a very warlike people who did their share of damage to themselves, other people and their environment, not unlike the English who later settled/invaded NZ, so the “be peaceful and one with nature” message seemed a bit incongruous to us.

Our hotel arranged for hot dinner to be waiting for us. I had a “bacon shank” (kind of like a ham hock) and kumara, the local sweet potato that was a staple of the Maori and is still grown and eaten in NZ. Yummy.