Where have all the trees gone? (Taupo) Traditional Cache

A micro cache (bison tube) hidden in a small rest area north of Taupo. For many years this cache would have been in the middle of Tahorakuri Plantation. Today it is one of very few places left to stop and have a rest in the middle of a dairy farming boom area.

At least 30,000 hectares of land has been converted from plantation forest to pasture in the central North Island of New Zealand between 2000 and 2010. The dairy boom during this period has encouraged forest owners to convert their land over to cows and milk production. In this case the land is managed by Landcorp, a state-owned enterprise. Tahorakuri Forest used to be full of birdsong. When I stopped here in the early 2000s to do a bird list, there were whiteheads, long-tailed cuckoos, tomtits, fantails and grey warblers living in the mature pines. Today the bird song you will hear is the cry of magpies. This cache is a reminder of the forest that was and a chance to soak in the rural odours of freshly planted grasslands and hungry cows.