Blog Number 3 Kauri

FRIDAY – late january 2107

It is late January and we don’t know the date… we are on holidays (and seniors)

The west coast trail is a beautiful area but the driving is demanding and tiring from Apihara to Rowena and down the coast. Ferry crossing is reminiscent of the Gulf Island ferries in BC. Left Dhargaville on west coast trail and drove to Matahoke to tour Kauri Museum in the Otomatea district and spent most of the day there; an incredible museum began in the 1960s and chronicles the Kauri forest industry, the gum diggers and the establishment of sheep and cattle ranches in the north country. The museum is staffed entirely by volunteers who are a friendly and accommodating lot… very proud of the history. The immigrant Europeans from the 1850s; Croatians, Bohemians, Scots, Irish and others still celebrate their European roots, religions, music and traditions. The graves in the churchyard across the road date from the 1850s and it must have been a tough life for them. Many women died in childbirth, perinatal deaths of children and many men died at a young age (forestry accidents, burst dams, drownings in the coastal shipping?? don’t know). One was a RAF pilot Lieutenant Coates who was shot down over France in 1917 and listed as missing. Kiwis had the highest number of casualties expressed as a percentage of the entire population in WW1. No love for the British officers here! One local family lost 3 sons killed on the same day at Gallipoli and the 4^th son was sent home (A Saving Private Ryan story from WW1). One of the volunteers explained that most of the local women in the 1920’s and 30s were spinsters, a family of 8 daughters had 6 spinster daughters; there were few males and the ones returning from the war were mentally deranged and not marriageable. Didn’t Gloria Steinem suggest that ALL men were a bit deranged?

Lots of horse racing history and stud farms in the Auckland area.
The Kauri tree is the second largest in the world after the giant Sequoia in America… good on the Donald for making America the Greatest! The Kiwis make biosecurity the highest priority; when we went into the Kauri forest we had to scrub the soles of our shoes with a brush and slosh our footwear in a chemical fungicidal solution much like the cow dip operation for hoof and mouth disease (see below). You must not stray off the trails and avoid stepping on Kauri roots to ensure the roots are not contaminated by a fungus on your footwear that is causing the dieback.

The Tane Mahuta tree is sacred to the Maoris and estimated to be almost 2400 years old. The trunk is 60 feet to the first branch and 160 feet total height and 48 feet in circumference. All branches drop by abscission and the tree exudes gum to heal the wound.
Rainforest is very lush...


The gum drops to the ground and becomes fossilized and the forest is mined for gum. The kauri gum is very valuable and was exported to England, Europe, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, India and Russia and has a multitude of uses... mostly lacquer, varnish and sealants. It is a major component in the colourful Maori tattoos. The finest pieces (like amber) are used in the jewellery industry. This carved statue of a Maori chief is over 3 ft high.

The gum diggers used shovels, and pickaxes and improvised sluices to recover the gum deposits. It took six men one day to fell a Kauri tree and another day to top it.

The tree was cut into manageable sections (approx 20 feet long) and winched or skidded down the hill sides or into makeshift dams. When there was sufficient rainwater collected the dams would be opened (or burst) and send the logs hurtling down the natural sluiceway. One run took hundreds of logs 10 miles in 40 minutes. A team of 18 bullocks would then pull each log segment to saw mills by wagon. There were many sawmills to square the logs for shipping on large seagoing ships plus there was a large cooper industry as well.



The Kauri wood is light and strong and was used in the masts of ships and racing yachts. While the kiwis were good sailors… they had an extra advantage using the light, strong Kauri trees for yacht racing.


Swamp Kauris are logs that have been buried in swamps for 2000+ years and are now being discovered (and recovered ) using modern technology. The wood is used to make ornate (and very expensive) furniture.

Wood of the Kauri is very beautiful... Davie and Garth, you would love to have it in your woodworking shops. A 90 slab below.



Armoire from the 1910 era

Board room table






We never had a one-holer THIS exotic back on the farm!

 

The Kauri forest was completely logged off by about 1910 and the sheep and cattle (dairy and beef) stations sprung up. The forests now have been re-forested with pine and sold to the Chinese by Japanese interests. Logging is a huge industry here but a bit dodgy on the narrow twisting roads to avoid the trucks.

 

 

 

BLOG NUMBER 2 TUESDAY JANUARY 23

Spent 2 days camping at Whangarei (pronounced fan ga ray). Drove from Whangaparaoa to a bee farm at Warkworth ( a veritable hive of activity) and bought some local honey. Hives have a glass wall to watch the bees; as Laugh-Ins Artie Johnson would say… VERY INTERESTING! How many are old enough to remember Laugh in? Some bees actually vibrate and then go into a figure of 8 dance to communicate to the other bees where to find nectar. We bought a jar of Pohutukawa honey from the NZ Christmas tree, green and red. The Asians buy a lot of NZ manuka honey known for its medicinal properties and only available from New Zealand; it is said there is about 4 times the total NZ manuka honey production sold in stores throughout the Asia marketed as manuka honey …Hmmm!

 

 Visited an historic village called Puhoi; Bohemians came to the area in the 1870s  and would have perished if the Maoris  had not provided them with food and shelter the first winter. They established an entire village which is now a day run/ weekend retreat for biker gangs from Auckland.

I am accompanied by three ladies; Heather of course…,

Brunhilde (our GPS lady) who has had some aging, memory lapses which has created some confusion of late. Her pronunciation of the New Zealand names using a computer-generated British accent sometimes sounds like she is drunk or speaking with marbles in her mouth. Auckland sounds like Auschland.

… and good old Nellie; old Nell is our 2002 Toyota camper van with 450,000+ km on the odometer and somewhat battered and worse for the wear. She is top heavy, having resisted the gravity effects of aging; well equipped with “oh-shit” handles for Heather to hold onto on the multitudinous curves in the highway causing her top heavy structure to sway. Very susceptible to cross winds plus she is incredibly underpowered. We are down in first gear on some of the mountainous grades. To date, I haven’t been able to coax her above 95 km.

Old Nell in the campground in Ahipara.

Spent some time in Paihia and Russel (the Hell Hole of the Pacific 100 odd years ago).

Ferry over to Russel.


Hanging around Russel.
Paihia is near Waitangi where the Waitangi Treaty was signed in 1840. Feb 6 is Waitangi Day and the Federal politicians show up and give speeches while the Maoris show up, dish out catcalls and throw eggs. Much like Question Period (no answer period) in the House of Commons. Four Maori chiefs cut down the Union Jack flagpoles then the cagey Brits installed metal ones knowing the Maoris didn’t have cutting torches.

Campgrounds here are EXCELLENT… fully equipped kitchen fridges, stoves freezers and stainless steel wash-up facilities. Great bathrooms, showers and laundry facilities. They also have ATCO like trailers for rent (real cheap). We have had meals with Swedes, Germans, and Dutch couples travelling NZ by camper van. Many young couples on work experience holidays as well, mostly Germans, Slovenes, and Eastern Europeans working and travelling the world. Their governments sponsor them to get work experience abroad.  Ahipara campground below.

Trip to cape Reigna is thru cattle and sheep stations; each about 30,000 acres. The Kauri forests were destroyed about 150 years ago as Croatians from the Dalmatian coast settled there and started bleeding the Kauri trees for the sap (lac) which they exported to Russia to be used as varnish. The trees died and the dead trees were covered up by wind erosion. Now the farmers are digging out the trees to be used in wood carving and exotic furniture manufacture. The wood carving of two old guys shows the one on the right for $75,000 while the guy on the right can be had for a bottle of wine (some days).

The Japanese have a 99 year lease to log the pine forests and export them to China; so much for self determination for the kiwis. Anyway... the All Blacks will kick the %$#@ out of them on the rugby field.

Cape Reigna is where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. It is a spiritual place for the Maori. The bodies (physically) are delivered to Ahipari (where we are camped at the south end of 90 miles beach) to a Madai (similar to an Irish wake… without the fisticuffs), the departed spirit is delivered northward spiritually along the 90 mile beach to the Cape where they pass into the afterlife. Warning! The next paragraph contains an explicit picture for adults only, if you are under the age of 18, skip to the end. The Tasman Sea is male and the Pacific Ocean is female and the juncture is seminal in nature to create new life. Let your imagination run wild in the picture.  Just kidding!








Cape reigna

 

After a great steak and sausage lunch, we sand boarded down the 100 ft high dunes and got sand in places I didn’t know I had.







Then drove down the 90 miles beach on the sand in a big bus at 80 kph. For safety reasons, 3 busses, 2 of which were 4x4s to pull out our larger bus if we got stuck.

n the west coast tomorrow.

Having a blast Heather and Lynn.

Blog Number 1  - Friday JAnuary 20

Arrived in San Diego on the 7^th of January, picked up our car and found the vrbo in Vista with the aid of Brunhilde (GPS voice). John and Louise drove over from Mesa and spent a couple of days. Took the coaster from Oceanside into San Diego and visited Old Town, Little Italy and USS Midway during the next few days.

 John and I took out dos amigas for lunch.

 Just to rub it in… beach walking (with no snow and +25 degrees) was REALLY nice!

USS Midway tour was very interesting and highly recommended; many volunteers who had previously served aboard the Midway made each stop on the audio tour interesting. Commissioned in 1945 and was active during the Viet Nam war and decommissioned in 1992 and was the American flagship during Operation Desert Storm. The grunt sailors had a busy and confining life while the pilots lived the life of Riley. Seaman’s quarters consisted of one of 6 vertical bunks and a locker 1ft x 2ft x 3ft. A typical day was 4 hour watch, then an 8 hour shift followed by a 4 hour watch then 8 hours of “free time”.

Ready for take-off

Crew of 4500 sailors, 200 pilots, 60 cooks, 600 in engineering plus doctors, dentists, et.al. Daily… 10 tons of food, 13, 500 meals, 3000 potatoes (the non Dan Quayle spelling), 1000 loaves of bread, 4500 pounds of beef, and 500 pies. The skill of pilots had to be amazing plus the coordination of the catapult crews to launch the planes was demanding and dangerous. One jet launched every 90 seconds from the catapult, 0 to 180 mph in 2.5 seconds.

Spent 2 nights in Hemet visiting friends before our flight out of LAX; best to avoid LAX in future travel plans. In addition to the insanity on the freeways to get to the airport… did you know they herd travellers around in LAX using cattle prods? Drove up to Idylwyld and did a hike in the San Bernadino forest.












 

9 ½ hours flight to Tahiti, as you get off the plane you are enveloped in humidity, smell of vegetation and flowers and we are looking forward to 3 days there on the return flight. After re-fuel and new crew, 5 ½  hours to Auckland. Heather’s cousins (Herb and Gillian) have treated us royally. Auckland is a wonderful laid back, quiet city great for walking about and so quiet. It is hard to imagine that we were in a large city of 1.5 million. We heard only 1 siren in two days. Took the return ferry (50 minutes) from Whangaparaoa (pronounced Fanga para oh ah) into Auckland. These kiwi names are not easy plus unlike British television, there are no English subtitles to turn on when the locals speak to you. So our favourite phrase is… “could you please repeat that?” then… “Once more, please?”

The skytower in Auckland provides an amazing panorama of the city and harbour (The City of Sails and the long white cloud).

Visited an art exhibit that showcased “The Maori Portraits” which consisted of the documented paintings of all Maori chiefs plus tribal life from the mid 1870s until the early 20^th century. Amazing works by a Bohemian artist (Gottleib Lindauer… google his works) using paint and photography plus a documentary film of how the British subdued the Maoris and expropriated the land.

 

Went to the fish market yesterday and saw the fishmonger chase a HUGE (almost a meter long) crawfish around the tank for ten minutes to finally catch it. After he weighed it and told the guy the price was $310 and the guy said “I don’t want it”. The poor traumatized crawfish went back into the tank to live another day.

 

Herb and Gillian have heartily endorsed our “1 toilet paper roll rule for guests” and last night the roll ran out so… today we pick up our van and will head north with the aid of Brunhilde and lots of advice and travel tips from the cousins.

View below is from Gillian's parents home looking south toward  Auckland. Beautiful!