Road Trip to the Kauri Museum and Waipoua Forest - Land of the Giant Kauri Trees

Day 4 and our first road trip since arriving in Auckland. After a quick breakfast we bundled into our hire car to go and see the much talked about giant Kauri trees.

Scenic look out on the way to the Kauri Museum

The giant Kauri trees are well worth a visit - you can't actually comprehend the true size of them until you are up close and personal with one of the trees. They are a fundamental part of New Zealand's history, in that they were one of the main draws for European settlers in New Zealand once they discovered the value of the wood back in the 1700 and 1800 and sadly that saw the devastation of the beautiful Kauri forests... greed hey? 

Our first pit stop enroute to the Kauri forests, stretch legs and tummy refuelling time, was at the Kauri Museum at Matakohe about an hour from Takapuna, a great place where we got an understanding of the history of the Kauri tree - displays of furniture created from Kauri wood (quite a warm rich red wood), room illustrating the various tools and techniques that were used to fell these humongous trees. 

Our favourite room by far was the the gum display room - cabinets filled with huge rocks of amber, some of which had bugs trapped inside (boys liked this bit needless to say).

Gum displays at the Kauri Museum

After the Kauri Museum we headed onto Waipoua Forest to visit some of the Giant Kauri trees in person - truly magnificent.

Tane Mahuta, Lord of the Forest, is the largest living kauri tree in New Zealand

Spot a little person amongst the Four Sisters giant kauri trees

Yes this is called the four sisters - I know there are only three of them in the photo but one is hidden - promise!