Don't Miss Seeing Huge Ancient Kauri Trees on Your Trip to New Zealand

In 2000, my husband and I took one last major trip before we had kids. I chose New Zealand, mainly because I discovered that they had something called zorbing. This was the clincher for me, plus it just sounded like a fun country. I planned our trip to start by heading north from Auckland to see "some really neat trees." Were we in for a treat!

The Kauri trees are coniferous trees native to the northern portions of the North Island of New Zealand. They are the biggest, but not the tallest, trees in the country. The bark is smooth, and the lower branches are shed as it grows. By the time the tree is mature, it forms an umbrella of branches over the surrounding area. Kauri trees can reach 135 to 165 feet tall and over 15 feet in diameter.

On our trip, we started from Auckland and headed up the east coast of the Northland area of the North Island. We stopped along the way for our first of many "frolic on the beach" stops. Along this part of the drive, we also saw rolling hills, green everywhere, and interesting plant life that was quite different from what we are used to in the United States.

We were looking for the giant Kauri trees. For some reason, I was expecting a forest of them. In reality, they were mixed among the other plants and trees in the area. One of the first trees that I saw on our drive looked like a palm tree, but the fronds were shaped just like an umbrella. I kept calling it an umbrella fern, but it turns out it is called a Tree Fern. We finally reached the Waipoua Forest and the pull-off that led to some paths to the most famous Kauri trees. We parked the car and made the short trek.

The Waipoua Forest is breathtaking. The giant Kauri trees are magnificent. In particular, we saw some of the more impressive trees, named Tane Mahuta ("Lord of the Forest"), Te Matua Ngahere ("Father of the Forest"), and the "Four Sisters." It was a fairly short and easy walk to see all of this magnificence, and shouldn't be missed on a trip to New Zealand for anyone interested in nature's beauty.