Kauri trees

In New Zealand, there's a HUGE tree called a kauri. There used to be thousands more, but they were logged back in the 1800s to use as masts on ships. The ones that are left are protected, I think, and their locations are advertised in the tourist brochures so people can go see them.

So we went to see a square kauri while we were having a little vacation on the Coromandel peninsula. It looks squarish because it was almost like 4 trunks meshed into one. It was 1200 years old and 30 feet around. And it's not even very big compared to some. The biggest one in the country is Tane Mahuta (Lord of the Forest). It's 2,000 years old, 160 ft. tall and 43 ft. around.

To get there, we had to drive on a gravel road and then walk up 162 steps. (I counted)

You can easily see Curt in the close up picture of the tree at the top of this blog entry.

He's also waving to me in this long distance shot, wearing a white shirt. See how small he is compared to that tree?