Tuesday 9th December 2014
Today we took a Dune Rider adventure to the very tip of NZ – Cape Reinga. We started the day with a few tame activities. We visited a kauri wood workshop and started to learn about these amazing trees. Firstly to just understand how huge these trees actually grew and then to discover how the ancient forests have been uncovered and subsequently the gum (amber) and the timber is used commercially. Kauri trees can live for 2000 years with a girth of 16 mts and grow as tall as 50 mts.
The wood workshop has sourced the kauri timber from extinct forests in the north island. The timber is found buried often up to 12 mts deep. Some of the tree trunks are up to 150 tonnes and when excavated they then require many years to dry out (up to 7 years). One such tree trunk that we saw was 50 tonnes (only part of the tree) and it had been carved into a staircase and was the feature of the shop.
We continued on and visited the Gumdiggers Park. Now this would not normally inspire me – the name for a start is very strange. However it is interesting how a simple explanation can turn things around. Gumdiggers were like golddiggers. The gum from Kauri trees (as young as 60 years) would drip down, become buried over time and then in the 1800’s it was discovered to be a rich source of income and was used for varnishes and resin-based products. The gum can also be polished and sold as jewelry also known as amber.
Anyway enough of trees, we were off to the discover the very northern tip of New Zealand – Cape Reinga and see were “the two seas meet” – The Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea. Following this we traveled south to the Te Paki sand dunes and went board riding on the sand dunes – about 100 mts straight down. Exhilarating.
After that it was down to 90 Mile Beach for a hair raising drive for about 30 kms.
Now we have finally stopped and have enjoyed fish and chips from the “world famous Mangouni Fish Shop” whilst toasting the sun set with another fine drop of New Zealand Pinot Gris from our balcony.
