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.