Last weekend Greg and Heather Stump asked us to join them on a trip up to visit Puketi near Kerikeri. The Puketi Trust was holding their AGM followed by a walk to see some of the large kauri in the forest there. It was very interesting to hear their Chair John Dawn speak about the year just gone, their achievements and some of their challenges.
The Puketi forest is completely different to Bream Head being situated on a plateau around 400m elevation and exposed to the moist south westerly directly off the Tasman Sea. The forest was remarkably damp with lots of ferns and mosses glistening with moisture despite the warm sunny day. The kauri are stunning and give the forest a cathedral like ambience. To help protect these special trees we had to thoroughly scrub and disinfect our boots before going on the walk. This was a precaution to help prevent the spread of Kauri die back disease and is a very good idea when entering any Northland forest including Bream Head.
We don’t have a lot of kauri but there are some very nice specimens in parts of the Reserve. There is a very good web site www.kauridieback.co.nz with lots of information and links – well worth a look.
Read the November Rangers Report in full (980kB pdf).