Over 100 years ago the whole of the Coromandel Peninsula was covered by vast Kauri forests. These Kauris are the largest trees in the wonderful New Zealand native bush. The biggest of them were up to 7 mt in diameter and may have been over 3000 years old. However a sustained Kauri logging industry by early settlers saw almost all of these trees cut down. The beautiful golden timber was valuable especially for boat building and today is prized for furniture making, although all our remaining Kauri are now protected.
Luckily, not too far from Whitianga on the old 309 Road to Coromandel Town there is a small grove of these great trees still standing. These mature trees are some 600 years old, and while they can still get a lot bigger they do give us a good indication of how this area must have looked 120 years ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment