Waipoua Forest & Kaiiwi Lakes

The trevally Len caught for tea on Wednesday was delicious and a change from the kahawai so he cast his line out a few more times on Thursday morning before setting off to Bayly's Beach, out from Dargaville, but only hooked a small snapper which had to be returned to the sea to grow bigger.

Once on the road the drive south took us through the Waipoua Forest for about 18 km, the road being quiet at this time of the year and winding through the beautiful, native, scenic bush with its splendid large Kauri. The "Lord of the Forest" is Tane Mahuta, a kauri with a girth of nearly 14 metres and being 52 metres high is over 2000 years old. Also worth seeing are Te Matua Ngahere reputed to be the widest and oldest Kauri at nearly 3,000 years and the 4 Sisters although having seen them all before we didn't stop this time. These kauris are all threatened by Kauri dieback, a fungus type disease, which is having a devastating effect on the kauri - once they are infected they will die and we are wondering whether the odd dead ones we saw not far from the road have been a victim of this.

Lake Taharoa, the largest of the Kaiiwi Lakes

Since travelling through the forest we have been told that we should have taken the loop road out to Trounson Park - our NZMCA book says that the DOC camp there is closed over winter but apparently there are some very good boardwalks through the forest - next time!! We did go out to the Kaiiwi Lakes again - 3 freshwater lakes situated in the Taharoa Domain. The whole area around the lake has been improved since the last time we were there with the road sealed, all the old, dangerous trees being felled and the camp ground all opened up and grassed. We met up again with Don and Eileen, from Foxton Beach (previously Papamoa), whom we had camped close to at Opononi and they were enjoying a couple of nights of peace and tranquillity by the nice lake - good for trout fishing. They had done a couple of walks there as well as a bike-ride a few km out to the beach.