Kauri Coast
Two hundred years ago much of the warmer Northland you are driving through was covered by huge Kauri Trees. The first settlers logged the giant trees to receive timber, farmland and they digged for gum the trees produce. The trees often reaching heights of 50m and some are thought to be around 2000 years old. For more information about the giant trees visit our special kauri page.
Matakohe
Kauri Museum
If you are visiting the Kauri Coast, that's the place to go first. The museum covers everything associated with Kauri including early New Zealand social history. It's a huge and permanently expanding exhibition.
Dargaville
Dargaville Museum
Harding Park
Kai Iwi Lakes
24km north of Dargaville. Three dune lakes with white beaches surrounded by pine forest.
Trounson Kauri Park
Near Kaihu you can leave SH12 to visit Trounson Kauri Park where the DOC has made great affords to bring the forest back to his original state.
Meet some of the Kauris on the walk 40min through the forest. Back on SH12 you'll find the
Waipoua Kauri Forest
If you are entering one of the last remnant kauri forests you'll find a DOC Department of Conservation Visitor Centre which provides detailed information.
After surviving the first loggers just because of the remoteness of the area, the trees should be logged in the 1940 to supply timber for the war-time. The local people successfully organised a preservation campaign which resulted in the creation of Waipoua Sanctuary in 1952.
Tane Mahuta - God of the Forest and Te Mahuta Ngahere - Father of the Forest
Tane Mahuta, the biggest still remaining kauri tree is said to be about 1200 years old with a high of 51.5m and a girth of 13.77m. The trunk's high is 17.7m
