Coming Up Close

When we first moved up here to the far north we visited a well known Kauri forest named Puketi Forest or Manginagina native Kauri walk .  Kauri trees here in NZ are highly thought of and protected so most walks like this that contain them have cleaning stations at the entry. The walk runs around in a 15-20 minute loop from start to finish with many native plants and trees plus vegetation on the forest floor. It's very quiet and luckily while we were there yesterday we were the only ones. Native fern fronds are also known as our silver fern (Ponga or Mamaku) and can grow up to 20 metres high. At various turns around the walk there are signs up detailing the history of the area and of the trees. When the first settlers came here in the 1800s many Kauri trees were sadly cut down and used for building but the gum was used for trading.  As well as Kauri other trees also grow here such as Taraire, Kohekohe, Towai and Northern Rata. Birds such as Fantails, Kokako, North Island Brown ...