Friday, Mar 1st, Okura, New Zealand

Greetings!

The little town of Matakohe has quite an impressive tree museum.  It is dedicated to the Kauri, which has been responsible for providing the worklife of almost everyone living in Northland for over a hundred years.  From the Gum-diggers, swamp trunk-finders, cutters, planers, and furniture makers, the long slow death of the Kauri tree is well worth a museum.  And by the way, those circles in this photo represent verified tree diameters up to nine meters.

On our way to where we're staying tonight, we drove a long and treacherously curvy road to the Goat Island Marine Reserve   The timing wasn't perfect (five minutes before closing time), but we did find the beach and entrance lagoons one of the best invitations to see and experience marine wildlife yet.

But today and tomorrow are mostly driving days between the Northland and the part of the island south of Auckland.  We've got a little over two weeks left, and there is a lot of territory to cover.

So forgive us if the photos and comments are sparse.  We've just about mastered the driving-on-the-left part, if we can just remember o use the right hand for the turn signals.

To see the remaining few photos taken today, click on: Friday, Mar 1st, Okura, New Zealand.