New Zealand's Remarkable North
Tree gods, dunes and other surprises
by Helena Zukowski

It was not the best of days to stand before a god.

From the minute our Maori guide, Reuben, picked up my small group at Auckland airport for our tour of one of New Zealand’s least-visited areas, the Northland, we had heard tales about Tane Mahuta, God of the Forest. Tane Mahuta is actually a tree, the largest of New Zealand’s native trees, and with these vital statistics—45’ in girth, 169’ high, 2,100 years old—is the tallest specimen of the native kauri tree in the country, a god among gods. As our plane landed at the airport however grey clouds mischievously rolled in and continued getting heavier and greyer and wetter by the minute as we rolled northwards.

The plan was to stop first at Te Matua Ngahere, the oldest tree known as “the father of the forest” before meeting up with the king of the giants itself. “No worries,” said Reuben, standing in a downpour, rain dripping off his hat. “Koro is doing a karakia and by the time we get to the forest the rain will disappear.” Koro was our number two guide and the karakia was what we might call an anti-rain dance.

For a quick update on New Zealand, this is a country that has in many ways become tourism’s Flavour of the Month. Where only a couple of decades back it was boring and filled with sheep, today it’s become cosmopolitan and a hot ticket. Sitting on the edge of the world, New Zealand seemed so remote in the past that visitors tended to tack it on for a brief visit after an extensive tour of Australia, three hours by air away. . Now, rather than have it as an “add on” to Australia, visitors discover there is so much to do in The Land of the Long White Cloud aka New Zealand, who needs Australia?

The country is divided into regions, each having its own special attractions from the heavy-duty nature walks and risky sports of the southern South Island to numerous regions producing stellar wine, introduction to Maori culture and so on. The Northland with its near-tropical climate is a particularly good place to visit in shoulder seasons when weather may become a factor. Jutting like a hand with an extended finger north of Auckland, the Northland has two distinct coastlines—the west coast with its long, wild beaches backed by sand dunes and the pounding Tasman Sea and the east coast with white sand beaches winding around sheltered coasts and harbours. In between these coastlines are such wonders as the kauri forests we were about to visit, landscapes of sand dunes that look like the Sahara, the birthplace of modern New Zealand and the spot from which the souls of the Maori depart for the ancestral home.

By the time we get to the Waipoua Kauri Forest and the “father of the forest,” the rain is coming down heavily and the skeptics among us are muttering under our breath. We can hear Reuben chanting “…ka mao mao mao mao amo te ua…” which is kind of the equivalent of “rain, rain go away….” A little further up the road, we meet Koro and miraculously the rain stops and the sun comes out. Like Reuben, his enthusiasm for the forest bubbles over and we learn why the underside of the Silver Fern is white (it acts like a Maori flash light), about the amazing diversity of flowers and trees and how the forest supplied the Maori with food and medicine.

“Really, the forest is like one big supermarket,” says Koro. “It was also our medicine cupboard.”

There is something particularly hypnotic about the kauri beside its immense girth and age—it’s an extremely dense wood, with a soaring trunk and crown of branches at the top. It’s now a protected tree but ancient logs are still being hauled up out of swamps where they have fossilized over the centuries. The wood is made into stunning furniture, gift boxes, crafts and even kaleidoscopes that are a bit costly but worth every bit if only to tell friends, “Hey, it’s thirty thousand years old…”

To get the full story on the kauri, a stop at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom, a museum north of Kaitaia will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the biology, how it was logged and why this native species is revered.

There are numerous ways to explore the Northland (coach tour, private car) but we chose a small private airline called Salt Air out of Kerikeri airport to make the most out of a limited amount of time. In a cosy Cessna 207, we pass over vast farmlands, planted pine forests, flocks of wild turkey and up 90-Mile Beach (which is actually only 64 miles long) to a landscape that seems plucked out of The English Patient. Vast mountains of sand roll in dunes to the sea, another reminder that New Zealand has just about every scenic variation you could ever want from dunes and desert to volcanoes and vineyards. We land the Cessna on a cow pasture runway and head for the dunes in a 4-wheel-drive vehicle for a day tour that will take us to Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of New Zealand.

Packaged tours of this area are the way to go since private cars are not allowed on 90-Mile Beach because of tidal sweeps and quicksand and navigating around suddenly appearing streams is best left up to the experts. Having someone point out all the local flora and fauna with their stories and legends enhances everything we see as well—did we know the cabbage tree was the world’s tallest lily? (No, of course not.) Or that the pukeko we see at the side of the road is a candidate for world’s dumbest bird, is related to the parrot and has wings with claws?

Our first stop is the Te Paki sand dunes (followed by a 4-wheel drive to 90-Mile Beach) for photos and we try sledding down the dune s—definitely more fun than sliding down snow drifts and you don’t get snow down your pants. Later, at Cape Reinga, a stark white lighthouse looks down as the Tasman Sea collides with the Pacific Ocean and a short distance away is a cove that is highly sacred to the Maoris. It’s from this spot the Maori say the spirits of their departing dead leave for Hawaiiki, the ancestral homeland.

Flying back to Kerikeri, the east coast unravels a totally different kind of beauty, the green of the mainland bitten by endless coves pounded by waves. Islands by the scores, lush and green. An ocean painted in a Gauguin palate of blues. The Bay of Islands is the best known part of the Northlands, even among Kiwis, and this is a good jumping-off spot for a host of adventures.

With our base in Kerikeri, we do some local touring with the first stop being the Waitangi National Trust & Treaty House, a must-visit even for people who don’t give diddly about history. Known as Te Tai Tokeratu, birthplace of a nation, this is where the Confederation of Maori Chiefs signed the first treaty with the British government granting the Maori rights as British subjects. Aside from historical importance, the grounds are beautiful and the Whare Runanga (Maori meeting house) is one of the most spectacular in the country. There’s also a sound-and-light show that relates the thousand-year-old story of the Maori landing until the present day.

The whole area is thick with historic treasures as well as being a thriving arts community. New Zealand’s oldest stone building (the 1835 Stone Store) is here along with Kemp House, the oldest wooden house in the country. There’s a great little homespun tour to the Kawita glowworm caves and slick all-day boating trips with Kings tours that will take you swimming with dolphins, to a natural rock formation called Hole in the Rock and other adventures.

As the only scuba diver in my group, I bowed to the majority and missed a day of diving in Tutukaka further south but visitors who dive should know that the Poor Knights Islands, just off the coast, are one of the world’s top ten dive sites according to Jacques Cousteau. The main dive operator here is Dive!Tutukaka which has the largest dedicated dive charter fleet in New Zealand. There are over 100 spots to dive from and the guides and dive masters are not only fully qualified but a couple are award-winning underwater photographers.

The Coramandel Peninsula in the extreme south of the Northlands and almost on a parallel with Auckland is a place so beautiful it even makes the eyes of Kiwis go a little misty when they talk about it. Relatively unspoiled and largely still not commercial, this is a finger of land jutting into the Pacific that is lined with exquisite rarely crowded beaches. The Coramandel seems to have something for everyone—excellent nature hikes alone or with experienced guides, wild and wacky parks for families with kids, fishing and plain old peace and quiet for people who just love to loll about.

The beauty of the beaches with their twisted native trees seem to go on and on and if you’re lucky you might see the coastline turn flaming red as New Zealand’s famous pohutukawa trees burst into dazzling scarlet. The area has a lot of well-established attractions such as the Driving Creek Railway and Potteries, the country’s only narrow-gauge mountain railway that twists and winds for an hour through a replanted native forest up to a viewpoint called The Eyefull Tower. It’s a big winner with both kids and adults. The wild and wacky Waiau Waterworks, the brainchild of an eccentric inventor, is filled with creative contraptions made from everyday objects that are powered by water. There are bicycles that squirt out water as you quickly peddle, water-powered clocks and music boxes and the best “Flying Fox” ride any child could desire.

For hikers, there are several good guiding companies but the best of the lot is Kiwi Dundee Adventures run by a passionate outdoorsman, Doug Johansen, and his partner Jan Poole. On my first meeting with Doug almost 20 years ago, his knowledge of the flora and fauna of New Zealand and his humour (ask him about Vitamin C and goat droppings) made such an impression, I’ve become his one-woman, unpaid Canadian PR rep. Jan Poole (who guided my most recent tour) does a fine job in keeping up with the company’s sterling reputation.

The final sensual “must” in the Coramandel is Hot Water Beach where you go with shovel and pail at low tide and dig your own shallow swimming pool. You have about a two-hour window during which the thermal water bubbles from below filling the pool with hot water for a do-it-yourself sand and seawater spa treatment.

Check out a map of New Zealand and you will be surprised to see how small a part of the entire land mass the Northland is. You could spend three or four days here, or a week or a month. As I said before, who needs Australia?

IF YOU GO:

Ancient Kauri Kingdom, State Highway 1, Awanui; www.ancientkauri.co.nz. Open daily and free admission.
Kings Tours, Maritime Bldg., Waterfront, Paihia, phone (09) 402-8288; www.kings-tours.co.nz.
Driving Creek Railway and Potteries, 380 Driving Creek Road, Coramandel. phone (07) 866-8703; www.drivingcreekrailway.co.nz.
The Waiau Waterworks, 309 Road, Coromandel, phone (07) 866-7191; www.waiauwaterworks.co.nz.
Salt Air, www.saltair.co.nz.

For more information on New Zealand, contact the tourist board at the website: www.newzealand.com/travel.