Kauri Coast

New Zealand

March 2007

KAURI COAST

This drive from 90-mile beach, down the West Coast was seriously hilly and curvy, causing the van to work overtime. This area is known as Kauri Coast due to the abundance of the massive Kauri trees. We’d already seen some very large trees in Yosemite USA, and we were excited to be seeing some more. Photos really don’t get across the absolute mass of these phenomenal living organisms. They are now protected and cannot be cut down. Instead specialist companies are salvaging very old stumps from swamps and from these making very beautiful and very expensive furniture. We visited the Kauri museum/factory and saw tables and chairs on sale for over 10K, not to mention the 50,000-year-old staircase on show.

That night we found a great camper van park with landscaped gardens. The old boy that owns it
conducted nightly walks in the forest for a small fee. He had a fabulous name. Herb! Love that. Along with ten others we crept around in the very dark woods, each armed with a small torch. Herb had a larger torch with a red filter over the bulb so that he could illuminate creatures without scaring them or causing them to flee. His first trick was to stop by a small stream and under a tiny bridge he had a friendly eel that would be there each night waiting for the chunk of cheese Herb would toss in for it. The eel looked very eerie in the dim red light and was a good start to the walk.

What we were all really hoping to see was the elusive and endangered Kiwi bird. A nocturnal and flightless bird who’s numbers were once dangerously low, now the Mascot of the country. The kiwi bird can be found on tins of black and brown boot polish and were during the war. Soldiers were supplied with this polish and led to the nickname ‘Kiwis’ that we now all know. Being flightless clumsy birds they are open to many predators and none more so than the much hated Possum. Possums were bought over from Australia and are breeding like wildfire. Not a day passed when we’d see less than fourty of these cat-sized creatures dead on the road.

We were shown a few large spiders, one nasty female who eats its male partner if hungry enough. Under a large uprooted tree were lots of Glow Worms who shone like tiny stars when we switched off the torches. Then the horrid Wettas, that are disgusting large cricket type bugs the size of your hand that live in damp caves or under trees. Hideous! Every so often Herb would hold up his hand and we’d all stop in silence listening to the night calls of the Kiwi. The male and female had very different and distinctive calls and lucky for us this sound led Herb right to one. We were all very very lucky to catch a glimpse of one of these rare birds trampling its way through the woods snapping twigs underfoot. A very special moment.

The next morning whilst hurtling down the highway Sarah spotted the sign and entrance for Sheep World. I slammed on the breaks and we overshot the gate but a quick flick of the gears and we were soon making illegal manoeuvres and were in. We couldn’t miss Sheep World! When in Rome and all that.

We had a look around the tacky shop at all the cheesy toys, and woolen apparel I wouldn’t be seen dead in. Then we bought tickets to see the sheep shearing shown. I had my doubts but it turned out to be really good and informative. The yokel farm boy was full of wit and told us all about life as a sheep shagger (oops I mean sheerer). The two types of dogs he used were fantastic and so clever. The first type are Eye Dogs who don’t bark and guide sheep simply by starring at them, but only up to 300 sheep at a time. The other dogs are called Hunt Aways who bark at the fluffy bleeters and can herd up to 1000 in one go.

The dogs save a lot of time in getting the sheep where you want them. But once in the barn this one guy has to sheer the sheep one at a time and earns about a dollar a piece. This is back breaking work and if the sheep isn’t in the mood, as we witnessed, things can get a little tricky. So next Christmas Day when you are donning that fine thick roll neck sweater your grandma buys you, just remember the hard work that went in to obtaining the wool.

Do you know why they shear female sheep...yes of course to get the wool...but after visiting this place, we know the other more important reason behind this choice. Basically when the sheep are wearing their little woollen jackets (AKA their fleece) the farmers have no idea of their size underneath their clothes. This is a real danger...if a thin sheep gets pregnant then all the energy is put towards the baby lamb and invariably both mother and child die. When they are sheered not only can the farmer see the thinner sheep to monitor them, but the sheep are a little colder and so eat more and more to build up their strength and are therefore bigger and fatter for motherhood....amazing!!!