The New Zealand Kauri Tree

Young kauri trees are very tall and thin and pole-like, and form these characteristic 'ricker stands'. As they grow, the lower branches peel away, leaving a tall trunk with a bushy crown breaking out above the forest canopy.

The volume of wood in the trunks actually remains constant over time, as the growing trees thin out.

Waipoua Forest in Northland (the northern-most district of New Zealand) is the largest remaining stand of mature kauri. I stopped up there this year and walked around the boardwalk on a fieldtrip for University, and sadly I've just discovered that I've lost most of my photographs. The one above is all that remains, and only because I had already uploaded it online.

It's suffering from the heavy load of visitors, although lovely to walk through (a lot like a quiet green cathedral, much like La Sagrada Familia, being built in Barcelona. Conincidentally, that project also involves New Zealanders!)

Unfortunately the tour buses tend to stop in the carpark, and the guides stay in the bus, while the visitors 'happen' to wander round the boardwalk - this way they are not technically guiding thema round the attraction and avoid levies. Unfortunate because two or three busloads a day are taking a heavy toll on the area.

This is a picture I experimented with in early 2010. II'd been wanting to paint kauri bark for years - for that matter, painting on kauri bark might be very interesting.

It has a fascinating texture, and comes off in scales the size of your hand. it's all grey and silver and brown, and increasingly green over the years, as moss and lichens grow all over it. Between the bark, you might find pale white gum frozen in drips, or bright oozing amber.