FROM TOP: VINCENT LOWE/ALAMY; 123RF. OPPOSITE: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION/ALAMYTe Matua Ngahere,
or the Father of
the Forest. Below:
The lighthouse at
Cape Reinga.you mine.’ This is how the kauri tree has a scaly bark.
But before the kauri tree joined the whale in water,
he saw his family standing on the shore. He told the
whale, ‘I am the giant of the land, I can’t leave my
people.’ So now we know why the whale doesn’t have
scales and the kauri trees does.”
Before we leave, we get a glimpse of Te Matua
Ngahere, the oldest kauri tree—aged around 3,000
years. Known as the Father of the Forest, he is shorter
than Tāne, but has a wider girth. There is also the
possibility of visiting Tāne’s four sisters—on another
trail—but we leave that rendezvous for another time.A LIGHTHOUSE AND A TREE
We end our time in the Bay of Islands with a visit to
Cape Reinga, the northernmost tip of New Zealand.
Here, a lighthouse on the edge of a steep rocky cape
stands testament to history. Originally located on
Motuopao Island, the light mechanism was relocatedof the kauri dieback programme, an active
movement to curb the pathogen’s spread.
A jet of antiseptic cleans the soles of our
footwear, one foot at a time.
A five-minute walk through the foliage
reminds us of the tattoo patterns of the
haka dancers. We stop short before a
51-metre-tall kauri tree. No doubt, he is
the lord of the forest. With a girth of 14.5
metres, how could he not be? A forest
within a forest, he has 40 plant species
thriving in his arms. Something looks
amiss though, and as I crane my neck up,
he seems to be upside down. I replay the
legend Naera narrated to us minutes ago,
picturing the realm of life drowned in
darkness as Tāne’s parents, Ranginui, the
Sky Father, and Papatūānuku, the Earth
Mother, in an eternal embrace. Tāne has
his feet up in the sky and his head is
burrowed in the ground as he pushes the
sky into heaven with his powerful feet.
When it rains, they say it is the tears of the
sky longing for his Papatūānuku. The ochre
clay is the stain of the blood spilled during
their separation.
As we walk around, we notice that the
kauri tree bark is scaly, and like a snake, it
moults to rid itself of vines and parasites.
I know our guide has another story up his
sleeve when he points to the whale bone
pendant strung around his neck. It
represents an ancient legend. “One day,
giant of the sea, the big whale, spotted a
kauri tree on the shores, swam up to him,
and asked if he would like to be a giant of
the sea with it. ‘I’d love to be but I don’t
have scales,’ the tree replied. To this, the
whale said, ‘It is no problem. I will giveCONSERVATION