Waipoua lodge and other far north delights
Mark Revington gets up close and personal with New Zealand's largest kauri
Tuesday, January 05 2010 || Travel || BY Mark Revington
Tane Mahuta, estimated to be around 2000 years old, has a girth of 13.77 metres, a trunk height of 17.68 metres and a total height of 51.5 metres, which gives you some idea of the tree’s massive crown.
It is indisputably the king of the Waipoua Forest but nearby Te Matua Ngahere (the father of the forest), also has an indefinable aura. Te Matua Ngahere is the second-largest living kauri in the country with a girth of 16.41 metres and a total height of just under 30 metres.
And the Department of Conservation’s penchant for boardwalks makes getting to these mighty giants half the fun. It’s just a short walk from the main highway through the Waipoua Forest — around five minutes or so — but it’s like entering an enchanted forest.
We had headed north from Auckland on a Friday night after what seemed like a long week at the office. It was a relief to turn left at the foot of the Brynderwyns and leave State Highway 1 with its interminable traffic queues behind. In front lay SH12, quiet, dark, punctuated by small oases of light that turned out to be country pubs with car parks full of utes. That’s a sight you don’t see so often anymore.
It was late when we arrived at Waipoua Lodge, the luxury getaway established by Nicole and Chris Donahoe in 2003 just two kilometres from the southern entrance to Waipoua Forest.
They restored the main kauri villa and turned the outlying farm buildings into four luxury suites called the Tack Rooms, the Stables, the Woolshed and the Calf Pen. The Tack Room consists of two bedrooms, a small lounge with a covered deck that looks east over the garden towards the distant Tutamoe range, with a small kitchen and bathroom. The bed in the main bedroom is a super king, which is another way of saying it’s larger than the South Island. There’s a small welcome basket of cheese, crackers and a bottle of wine on the table.
Nicole is a Northland girl who grew up on the beach at Paihia but had done that move-to-Auckland-thing. She was working as a national sales manager when she decided it was time for a career and life change. The couple bought the property in the middle of winter and promptly set about renovating it.
“I specifically looked for a business like this because I’d always wanted to sell New Zealand to the world,” Nicole says. “I hadn’t worked in hospitality but I love it. It took me until I was 40 to figure out what I wanted to do. This is really rewarding.”
The next morning my son and I discover one detail not normally associated with a luxury lodge — an enormous macrocarpa on the lawn complete with ladder and rudimentary tree hut. Nicole reckoned guests sometimes adjourn to this eyrie with a gin and tonic to contemplate life.
Inside the main lodge is a dining room, a bar and guest lounge with a fire, a library/sunroom, and mementoes of the kauri rush of the 19th century when the timber was pit sawn for this house. It has been a respite for travellers for more than 100 years, but I bet few, if any, experienced the luxury on offer these days.
Dinner on Saturday, with silver service, started with chili prawns, followed by lamb rack with a potato gratin and a large platter of vegetables, and berry friand and pavlova to end. Our son had some concoction of eggs and sausages or something that suited him just fine. We washed the lamb down with a Kath Lynskey pinot noir. The food and wine at Waiopoua Lodge are superb. Nicole sources much of the food from the surrounding district. Pork and bacon, for example, come from the Long Flat Bacon Company in Ruawai, while fresh herbs and vegetables come from the huge organic garden around the lodge and any extras are supplied by an avid gardener in Donnelly’s Crossing, a small settlement just a few minutes away.
“We emphasise vegetables because when you travel a lot, you primarily get plenty of meat,” says Nicole. “We’re lucky in having a large organic vegetable garden.”
The secret to a luxury lodge lies not just in the food and accommodation, but in service, and at Waipoua Lodge the service was never obtrusive and always offered with a casual friendly air that belied professionalism.
Many of the guests who come to the lodge are international travellers and bookings extend into 2011. But the recession has seen more Kiwis holidaying in their own backyard. Appropriately enough, many people come to see the kiwis in nearby Trounson Kauri Park. The Donahoes also work with a local company called Footprints, set up to guide people to Tane Mahuta and tell the story of the forest through mythology, history, and botanical knowledge. Lonely Planet named this one of 82 unmissable global experiences.
“The main reason to be here is Tane Mahuta and the kiwi,” says Nicole. “Night walks to see kiwi is something you can’t do anywhere else in the world.”
We missed the guided Waipoua Forest walk because we booked in for a night-time kiwi tour in Trounson Kauri Park but were foiled by rain. Other things to do? Go fishing or take a harbour tour. “When the weather’s good we’ve got the sand surfing and that is so much fun,” says Nicole. “You’ve just got to shut your mouth and not laugh otherwise it fills with sand.” If you want to go a little further afield, drive through the forest and continue around to Rawene and the Boatshed Café, which sits on stilts out over the harbour.
Nicole reckons Kiwis are the hardest to convince to try all the experiences on offer. We lived up to the national stereotype, taking our own sweet tour into the forest and a drive to Opononi on the edge of Hokianga Harbour, where we stopped at the pub for pizza, chips and beer with a harbour view and a soundtrack of Kiwi music. On the way back to Auckland, we stopped at the Matakohe Kauri Museum with its astonishing collection of kauri gum, photographs, displays and memorabilia documenting the devastation of the area’s kauri forests and the culture that evolved around the extensive logging. The museum even houses a complete kauri house. But we went just for a weekend. International guests tend to stay longer at Waipoua Lodge.
Mark Revington stayed at Waipoua Lodge courtesy of Waipoua Lodge and Navigate Oceania
