Ryan & U'i's Pacific Odyssey: NZ Day 18

May 23

Day – Kauri Forest tour, visit Tane Mahuta, surf beach break (Bayly’s Beach), fish n’ chips

Night – Drive south all night, stay at Muriwai Holiday Park

U’I, Hilary and I decided to double back to the Kauri forest in the morning , while Jason caught up on some sleep. I had again misjudged the gas level in our van, so our first stop was a country petrol station. I put in just enough overpriced fuel to get us to the forest, and on to the next big town later that day. We backtracked about thirty minutes through the ultra twisting jungle roads until we reached the kauri tree conservation site. Kauri trees have a rich history in Aotearoa. For Maori, they provided the much needed materials for constructing large double hulled canoes, homes, and other basic structural applications. When the Europeans discovered the massive trees, they saw $$ and kick-started a logging industry that would span nearly a century. We also visited a small kauri museum which housed a number of original photographs and artifacts from the early 20^th century, depicting the methods and lifestyles of the New Zealand logger.

The prime feature of the kauri forest was the magnificent Tane Mahuta, Lord of the Forest.

“In Maori cosmology, Tane is the son of Ranginui, the sky father and Papatuanuku, the earth mother. Tane tore his parents apart, breaking their primal embrace, to bring light, space, and air and allowing life to flourish. Tane is the life giver. All living creatures are his children. He is the largest living Kauri tree in New Zealand….Tane Mahuta sprang from seed some 2000 years ago during the life time of Christ.”

We stood beneath the tree for nearly half an hour, in awe over its sheer enormity and bathing in its mana. You could have parked our campervan in the base of the trunk. See the photos below, which truly do it no justice.

We doubled back to pick up Jason and continued South down the west coast, following several long gravel roads that jogged towards the ocean, in the never-ending search for surf. Omamari turned up more wind-blown chop, however, Bayly’s beach offered some slightly more protected conditions. Surf starved, Jason and I paddled out into the shorebreak, which ended up being heavier than we had originally anticipated. We crawled out at sunset, freezing and thoroughly exhausted, but stoked nevertheless that we got wet. As the darkness crept on, we elected to skip staying the night at Bayly’s and push on through the night.

We paused in nearby Dargaville to refill petrol and munch on some local fish and chips, so oily but so delicious. The highways then moved inland to skirt around massive Kaipara Harbor. We neared the coast again approximately 2 hours later in Helensville. Unfortunately, the holiday park we had planned on staying at didn’t appear to exist, so we continued down to Muriwai Beach and passed out.