NZ visual diary - entry 163
Parry Kauri Park - bush walk1
Randolph and I had a brief getaway to Warkworth, home to the Sculptureum and the Parry Kauri Park.
The Warkworth Museum is located within the boundaries of the park. We toured the museum, which we very much enjoyed. That said, the highlight of the park visit was the bush walk.
The walk is replete with a cross-section of indigenous plant and tree, the ancient kauri being the walk’s centrepiece.
It is said: “According to Māori philosophy and understanding of the spiritual world, cosmos, nature and the natural world, all trees come from the spiritual world and over time are gifted by spiritual ancestors to the natural, material worlds and humanity.”1
The kauri is revered and fiercely protected, the tree having been rapaciously exploited for timber in the 19th Century and threatened in more recent times by Kauri dieback disease.
Kauri are majestic trees, known to grow to heights of 50 metres, with trunk girths up to 16 metres, and life spans of over 2,000 years.
The photograph in this entry features the Nīkau palm, New Zealand’s only native palm species.
Tiakina Kauri website: https://www.kauriprotection.co.nz/about-kauri/