Tokatoka, Taking a Peak Around…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

You are peaking peeking into the pages of Kiwidutch’s retrospective journal as I document our December 2011-Janurayy 2012 trip to New Zealand.

At the moment we are staying with one of my oldest friends in Northland (at the very top of the North Island) and whilst my friend attends to some things that need her attention at home, we are taking her girls on a day trip around the region.

The kids voted to walk up Tokatoka peak so here we are at this odd looking hill on a baking hot day in January.

Naturally it’s not a track I could even remotely think of navigating  on crutches so I got to stay by the car whilst Himself and the kids scrambled to the top.

“Scramble” is definitely the operative word here because  although it’s hot and dry here  today, it’s been bucketing down rain in recent days and this track already has a reputation for being slippery. It’s very quiet out here in the countryside so quite soon after they left the van and disappeared into the trees and scrub I could hear squeals, shrieks and laughter for quite a long time after they departed and then all repeated again as they got closer when returning. When they finially re-emerged from the vegetation I saw the reason… every kid bottom was caked in mud.

Apparently some parts of the track are so steep that the kids steadied themselves with their hands and picked their way down on their bottoms to avoid even more slipping and sliding, so back at the van I got  a series of  lovely photos for the two family’s albums that consisted of  back-shots of a row of kids of various heights sporting wonderfully muddy backsides (clothes).

Naturally I’m not posting photos of my own children here or those of my friend on the Internet so you’ll just have to imagine  how funny they all looked, as well as the strange boasting that  ensued around the idea of : “ I got dirtier! ”  and “ No!!! I got more mud than you ”  or “ ha ha …(name) is even dirtier than you are!“.

I  had some time of my hands whilst they “conquered” the track a so I carefully picked my way a few meters down the road in both directions and let the zoom lens on my camera do the rest as I took photographs in a wide circle around me.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

A young Kauri takes centre stage…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Typical small shingle (gravel) road, often labelled on maps as “not tar sealed”,  both an unfamiliar term and a type of road that’s caught out more than a few unsuspecting tourists who have no clue how to drive on gravel.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

A diverse range of  trees for my drawing studies…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

This one’s a Cabbage tree (yes it really is called that!)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

In this next photo a look at the Peak from slightly different angle that better shows the “point” that sticks out to the front at the top…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Whoa! Where did he come from!?? I was distracted by the shrieks and laughter on the hill so I startled when all of a sudden I realised I was being watched from  very close range…seems someone is curious as to my presence…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Leaner and Greener …In Another 2000 Years?…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We are about to leave the Waipoua Forest in New Zealand’s Northland, but first I wanted to mention that there is more than one giant Kauri to see here if you want.

Most are hidden away,  protected and left in peace (as they should be) slowly growing to their giant size somewhere within the canopy of the Waipoua.

Several of the biggest though serve as both tourist attractions and educational sites so that people can see the trees for themselves and become aware that keeping them safe and healthy is a concerted work in progress rather than just a matter of  slapping a protection order on them and hoping for the best.

I do spot that on some information boards Tane Mahuta is listed as “God of the Forest” and on others it’s translated as “Lord of the Forest” so I’m not quite sure now which one is correct. Maybe it’s one of those words in Maori that has several interpretations?

The Department of Conservation has erected numerous information boards so the visitor from near and far can learn as much about Kauri as possible when they stop off to see them.  The conservation message is a strong one… and I’m glad to see that even in the walkway, trees of all varieties have been accommodated as much as possible rather then just torn down.  One stump is a New Zealand punga, and tiny budding tree ferns are emerging from it just centimetres from the public’s feet.

It’s a nice sign that with care and careful management co-existence is very possible between mankind and nature.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We did pull in at Te Matua Ngahere (Father of the Forest) but found out at the car park that the walk to New Zealand’s second biggest Kauri Tree takes 20 minutes each way.  Definitely out of reach for me on crutches and the two littlest kids were not enthusiastic so we ended up skipping this one, for this trip at least. I’ve seen Te Matua Nghere before too, as a teenager, it’s a shorter tree but fatter than Tane Mahuta… and it feels gigantic when you are close.

Back in the days when I first saw it school children used to link hands and try and surround it… I forget exactly how many kids it would take to make a circle around it but it was a lot… 15 or 20 or more from very vague memory. (depends entirely on the size of the kids naturally!)  Of couse from what we know now about the fragility of the Kauri root system, this practice would have long since been stopped.

Learning to live in balance with nature is something I’m interested in… of course we all want our creature comforts and modern technologies and in cities there obvious restrictions and limits but if there is a sustainable way to find the maximum balance possible then I’m willing to make  sacrifices to achieve it. Imagine if every spare green space in cities were used to grow veggies, trees or wildflowers, every new building and every building renovated were required to incorporate solar energy, rainwater catchment and brown water recycling.

I heard this week that Germany has now so far installed as many solar panels on homes and businesses nationwide that it’s the equivalent of the output of twenty nuclear power stations. It’s just the start, and Bravo Germany for taking such steps.

I hope we can become leaner and greener and can use human technology as wisely as possible so that both we and Kauri can both still be around happily co-existing in another 2000 years time.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Today I’m Driving You Around (the Bend?)…

Today I’m giving you a photographic post to take you on a partial journey of Northland, New Zealand. (The most northerly part of the North Island).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Small town New Zealand…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Produce the region is best known for…”Kumera” which is a type of Sweet Potato that  looks the same a regular sweet potato but tastes uniquely different. It’s very popular in New Zealand and they grow them here commercially for distribution around the country … (yes, Kumara is on my list of Kiwi favourite foods). As far as I know there appear to be two popular pronunciations of the word: “coom- a- rah” and “coom-rah”. I’m in the first group but I don’t actually know if I say it correctly or not.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Thundery (a.k.a. “painterly”) skies and moody landscapes…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

This firm had fruits and veggies on the roof of their building and a big show of All Back (New Zealand Rugby Team) Support. The Rugby World Cup took place in New Zealand in September 2011… to all New Zealand’s delight the All Black’s won!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

In the next photograph, in the far distance (centre) you can see a very pointy hill… it’s called Tokatoka Hill , Take note…. you’ll be seeing more of it soon…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Rural weatherboard church, … and school.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Signs of local wildlife… and New Zealand’s National symbol… (kiwi are nocturnal and motorists have to be careful not to run them over)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Local wildlife … not  so national symbol…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

And then the landscape closes in… becomes denser as we near the home of something very special…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Slaughter en Masse…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

These silent giants are for me like living beasts of the forest, and seeing them cut down like this gives me a sadness akin to seeing photos taken a century ago of whales being slaughtered en masse.

Nature’s giants of the forest were quietly minding their own business as saplings at the same time as Romans were building nice straight roads to foreign climes and then two thousand years later someone arrives with a hacksaw and declares that that amazing chunk of timber would make a mighty fine mast for their next ship and fells it without a thought to sustainability or the extraordinary length of time  it took to grow it this big.

There was a man called Tudor Washington Collins (wow… are they brilliant first names or what? I bet there might  have been a story or two behind that!) …who took an interest in Kauri, actually the word “obsession”  might be closer to the truth, and thankfully although many Kauri were removed from Northland forests,  at least thanks to him we have a record of their existence. He’s the man featured in my first photo,  he lived between 1898 and 1970,  was born in Paiaka, a small Northland community. He worked as a bushman for his brother in the Coromandel and it’s there he photographed his first Kauri tree.

Later in Warkworth we established a photography business and a radio and electrical business in 1925 and later still he farmed out on the Takatu Peninsula.

He was so impressed by the efforts of the Kauri museum that he  donated to it his famous collection of photographic negatives and enlargements, much of which gives  invaluable information into the relatively recent history of Kauri in New Zealand.

Shifting these massive timbers out of the bush often posed a problem, so one method used was to dam up streams and creeks, fell the Kauri into the waterways and then to break the dams and let the torrent of water move the lot. This was called a “drive of Kauri”. The one featured in this next photo is at Rata Bush, Ruakaka 1937.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

In the next photo the steam tramway was built with picks and shovels, the steam tram came from Dunedin in the South Island and hauled logs in the  Pupuke bush near Whangaroa.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

George Murray and sons used lumber jacks to move Kauri logs into a driving creek, the photo text noted their heights… useful for visualising how bir the log is: from Left, The father… George 6’7″ (204cm)  and sons: Jack 6’4 (195cm) and Ivan 6’6″(201cm)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

This next giant log went on to be used in boat building,  kind of gives new meaning to ” going out to split some wood” doesn’t it?

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

When people assumed that supply was endless, wastage was horrific…  the next photo shows wood just left behind…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Another tree destined for shipbuilding, this one is 56′long and contains 20.000,-  super feet of timber.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

On the Kirikopuni  circa 1903, logs are jacked onto horse drawn trucks for transport to Wairoa saw mills…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Rafting at Whangaroa, this photo was taken in 1924. This large raft of Kauri logs towed by the steam tug “Lyttleton”. This little ship was very well known as a rafting paddle streamer on the north eastern coast of the North Island.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Now that people are more enlightened and these trees are afforded as much protection as is humanly possible, these logging scenes will thankfully never be repeated. Instead they serve as timely reminders that even now in 2012 we think we have resources that plentiful, and ours for the using but that future generations may well look back on our generation, shake their heads and wonder too at our callous plundering ways.

“Just” a Plank of Wood, Right? …Wrong!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Now this is probably the moment that you start thinking… “Wood is wood right? , Why is Kiwidutch getting all starry eyed and obsessive about blocks of tree?

There are billions of trees on the planet, so … um, … sorry Kiwi … but … …so what?”

Good questions all of them… in fact any artisans of wood amongst you might even be forgiven for the thought crossing your mind… “hey there are even more  interesting woods out there too you know!“

Maybe this is a good time therefore to show you a plank… yes, (sigh, you can stop laughing now) I am serious …. a plank.

But as usual, since you are well aware that I like quirky things in life, this naturally, isn’t your usual run-of-the-(saw) mill plank…. in fact they had to first cut it up just to get it into the saw mill machinery.  Here, in a simple, single plank I can only hope that your heart skips a beat and that you go “wow, that’s an amazing huge piece of wood, and how even more amazing is the tree it came from?

In the age when tall masted sailing ships built from wood were the latest thing in modern technology, it’s little wonder that early settlers and entrepreneurs in the lumber industry looked at these oversized trees with eyes that saw perfect shipbuilding material rather than as ecological wonders of the plant kingdom that were hundreds and thousands of years old.

They also lived in an age where pioneers  “took dominion” over territories as they extended empire and that often came with a mentality of entitlement of ownership of the people and resources contained therein. In New Zealand “dominion” over the Maori thankfully didn’t really take place at all, but when it came to land, it seems that the only law  that mattered after the sale was signed, was that of “supply and demand”.

I see this “plank” as a majestic testimony to a beautiful tree that was destined to outgrow and outlive many of it’s diminutive forest neighbours,  the result of a seed and sapling that over 300 years later stood as a giant in the Northland bush.

Yes, I am in awe…  is it really possible not to be?

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Using up the Off-Cuts and Scraps…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Following yesterday’s post we have arrived at the Kauri Museum in Northland…

Kauri was a highly prized timber in shipbuilding, house construction and flooring but to a far lesser extent for use in furniture.

This is because the more “interesting”  wood contained sap…in fact I spy an amazingly beautiful piece of polished timber (first photo) with a label on it that reads:

” The Industry wanted and found, clean , straight grained and uninteresting first grade timber. The fancy grained and gum impregnated timber seen in the museaum was waste more often left in the bush or used as boiler firing“

Fortunately now we are enlightened and Kauri is quite rightly a highly protected tree and the museum has amassed a small collection of Kauri furniture. Personally,  I’d have any of these pieces in my home in a heartbeat.

I even find it beyond belief that this beautiful wood was only considered as off-cuts and scrap material for almost the first 100 years of New Zealand’s Pakeha (white) settlement.  Maori of course understood the value of Kauri too,  but by all accounts used it sparingly for very special things like building ceremonial and ocean going Waka (canoes).

There are many old grand villa style homes and public buildings in New Zealand that were build around 1900  that still boast stunning Kauri floors or staircases and in one way I’m pleased to see the wood put to good use (if the tree was going to be cut down anyway) but in many cases the “wastage” of wood was massive and on a scale that these days would be thought a reprehensible and moral tragedy.

In this post I’m taking a look at some of the beautiful furniture in the collection…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Ok, so there’s no way I’m getting these boats into my apartment but they are Kauri too.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Trees on Steroids… New Zealand’s Giant Kauri’s…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Welcome to my retrospective December 2011- January 2012 tour of New Zealand.

Amongst other things, my diary tells me it’s the first week of  January 2012 , it’s been raining hard all night and it’s predicted to continue raining all day,  so a suggestion is made of a place we might all enjoy seeing and that’s how Himself, I and a van-load of my friends and our kids end up outside this place… The Kauri Museum.

What’s a “Kauri” you might ask? …

..well it’s a tree, but a very special tree… think a regular tree on steroids, a bit like the giant Sequoia’s (a.k.a. Redwoods) and like  Sequoia’s, the biggest  Kauri trees are often thousands of years old and they are very big.

Actually not just “big” but “BIG“…  as in: if you hollowed out the middle of one you could drive your car through the resulting tunnel kind of BIG.

First let’s take a look at the outside of the Kauri Museum:

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

A Little Wander Around Waitangi…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

You are following our retroactive tour of  New Zealand made in December 2010 - January 2012.

At this point of the trip it’s early in the New Year and we are at Waitangi, in the Bay of Islands, in Northland.

We’ve just left the massive  ”waka” or  canoe and are slowly making our way around the grounds.

Himself, my friend and our combined group of children got so far ahead of me that they’ve had time to have a paddle in the sea as well as a good run around.

I’ve been taking my time, stopping to rest and plodding along carefully on my crutches.  This set of photos takes us past various parts of the Waitangi Grounds… some very important bits are coming up, but they get their own post.

We are heading towards the grass-topped knoll that I could see earlier on the peninsular when I zoomed in with the camera (from our picnic lunch spot on the beach at Paihia a few posts back). Paihia is across the bay at the extreme far right in the background of  the first photo, and the beach we were on is probably just fractionally out of shot, about another centimetre to the right. There’s another Maori Meeting House here at Waitangi too and I would have liked to have gone over and had a look inside but it was some distance away and I was getting rather  tired so decided to pass that one up. It’s excellent to get out and about but I’ve got to recognise my physical limits and know when enough is enough.

Little Mr gets disproportionately excited (as only six year old boys can) when a helicopter passes by so that photo is for especially for him and any other “plane spotters” amongst my readers (although I assume that adult plane spotters don’t emit very loud high pitched squeals when they spot helicopters LOL).  There is the possibility to walk in a large loop that would take us back to the Information Centre at the entrance but  after seeing the next two things  just around the corner  (all will be revealed soonest!) I find it’s time to call it quits on the walking, so Himself  sprints back to the car park and retrieves the van to pick us up.  Let’s take a look around this last part of the grounds …

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Just One Little Bay in a Whole Bay of Islands…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

At this part of my retrospective journal we’ve reached the lovely area of  Northland called the Bay of Islands.

There are a multitude of beautiful places to see around here, accessible by road and probably half a lifetime of places to visit if we had a boat, but we are stopping in Paihia where we find a picnic table under the shade of some trees just a few metres from the beach.

Since the day is hot and the sun is out, several of the older girls  indulge in some  sea-side paddling, whilst my friends four year old and Little Mr.  only have eyes for the playground equipment located a convenient distance from our picnic table.

My friend and I break out the contents of the picnic basket, make an assembly line and soon a large pile of sandwiches disappear into hungry waiting hands.

People all around us are relaxing in the sun, playing in the water or just sleeping on blankets on the grass.

In the last two photographs I use maximum zoom to look into the distance:  a small peninsular, topped partly near it’s end with a grassy area that features a large flagpole…  this is a very special place in New Zealand’s history…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

North, Deep into Northland…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Family Kiwidutch visited New Zealand in December 2011  - January 2012.

You are joining me as I leaf through the jottings in my journal and sort my photographs that recorded our adventures.

December 2011 has been and gone,  it’s now the New Year and we are staying with one of my oldest friends and her four daughters aged four to fourteen.

My friend lost her husband earlier in 2011 to cancer and the adjustment to life without the familiar husband and daddy presence in the house has been understandably hard.

Everyone has been dealing with their grief at different times and in different ways and it’s still early days as poignant dates like birthdays and anniversaries come around and the day to day reality of  raising four children alone kicks in.

Small things are often the most frustrating… like attempting to do all the small DIY chores that he used to take care of, not finding all of the tool parts necessary for some gadgets and the learning curve of having to teach yourself to use others.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

My friend’s family are for a large part based back in Christchurch and she has a business to run, and whilst family do what they can to help when they visit, of course their own families and jobs need attending to, so it’s  hard to keep on top of things once they are gone and she is here alone.

Himself loves to help and quickly seizes on a list of household chores that he can take care of, happily digging around in boxes of tool bits to find bits he can use and getting to work on the list.

There’s a sense of satisfaction that we can also spend out time helping do a few practical things during our stay, and with the help of her three older girls and Kiwi Daughter as sous-chefs, I get enjoy some meal planning and preparation so that my friend can catch up on some work related things that are urgent but have taken a back seat to family events of late.

I teach the girls some new meal recipes and we experiment with desserts, and the four girls enjoy working together on something new and yummy that we can indulge in later. The weather hasn’t been great over the New Year, it’s definitely warm enough… just the rain showers just keep coming.

Then we hear that the weather is due to improve so we decide to pile everyone in our van (Yeah for a nine seater!!!) and go sightseeing around the Bay of Islands area and to have a picnic at Piahia.  Our first stop was of course the small town of Kawakawa but now we are heading further north still…

Let’s have a small  look around this area of Northland…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)