The New Zealand countryside is wonderfully varied. The
beaches are lovely, some with white sand and some with black. The mountains are
endless and breathtaking. There’s farmland and forests. One lovely sunny day I
visited a national forest called Manginangina. It was a forest of Kauri trees,
one of New Zealand’s native trees. They can easily grow as tall as 65 feet, and
have a circumference of 50 feet (assuming I did the conversions from meters
correctly!). And they can live up to 2000 years!! There is a trail through the
nature reserve that takes you to a rather young Kauri tree, where you can see
it, hug it, photograph it, talk to it, whatever floats your boat. It’s only
about 800 years old. Legend says if you hug make physical contact with a Kauri
tree you will have good luck.
Later this same day I got to drive down 90-mile beach. Our
bus driver drove off the road right down to the beach, and we drove alongside
the water for about 30 miles. The beach is only 65 miles long, and it is not
clear how it came be named 90-mile beach. One theory is that the name comes
from the days of cattle herding when the distance along the beach plus the
distance to the destination for selling the cows came to 90 miles. According to
our guide, another theory is simply that it’s an awfully long beach and 90-mile
has a better ring to it than 65-mile.
I think that it is probably good that I haven’t tried to
drive here yet, as I’m certain I’d be distracted by the scenery J
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| Farmland |
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| Pride Rock? :) |
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| Mangonui Wharf |
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