The Lost Industry of Kauri Gum Digging
This cache was part of a geotour that has now finished.
This is a Letterbox Hybrid Cache - the final is NOT at the posted coordinates but is very close by. Follow the instructions on the page to find the final location.
The town of Dargaville is the largest on the Kauri Coast, and was built on extractive industries based on the vast stands of kauri trees that stood in the region. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the area was extensively settled by Māori, who had pā sites and marae right around the Kaipara Harbour. Today, most marae in the area are associated with Ngāti Whātua sub-tribes Te Taoū and Te Uri-o-Hau. Dargaville is named after the man that founded the town, the Irish-Australian businessman, Joseph Dargaville, in 1872 when he purchased the 80-hectare block of land from Ngāpuhi Parore Te Āwhā and others.
The wealth of the region was built on the felling and milling of kauri trees, and other trades including flax and kauri gum. Kauri trees were important to Māori as a source of timber for the production of waka and kauri gum was used by Māori too in Pre-European times, which they called kāpia. Fresh gum was used as a type of chewing gum. Highly flammable, the gum was also used as a fire-starter or bound in flax to act as a torch. Burnt and mixed with animal fat, it made a dark pigment for moko tattooing. Kauri gum was also crafted into jewelry, keepsakes, and small decorative items.
Kauri gum is a resin (a sticky substance) produced by kauri trees, the resin helps protect the tree by filling in holes and damaged areas.
Kauri trees can live for more than 1,000 years, so they make a lot of gum over a lifetime. As the trees die and fall, the ground where they grew becomes littered with kauri gum. Over time, this often gets covered by soil or swamps.
It did not take long after the arrival of Europeans for them to recognise the potential of kauri gum so from the 1840s, kauri gum was exported to Britain and America to make varnish. Later, it was used in linoleum, a floor covering. Gum digging attracted people from many places, including most notably Māori, British and Dalmatians, all of whom have left a significant mark on the area.
Gum digging was very hard work. The workers dug it out of the ground and found it in swamps. Many of these areas no longer had kauri trees – they were scrublands covered in mānuka.
Diggers lived in rough huts. They worked six days a week, and spent their evenings cleaning the gum by scraping it with a knife. Some also made ornaments by melting or carving the gum.
In the 1890s, it was getting harder to find gum in the ground. People started climbing living kauri trees to get gum. Some cut the trees, to make them bleed gum – but this often killed the trees.
The solitary gum digger had few requirements. The most important equipment was a gum spear and spade. Experienced diggers came to know the feel of hitting gum. The spade, known as a Skelton, was a cross between a spade and an axe. A hard-working digger went through two or three spades a year.
Diggers also used a bucket and a pīkau (a backpack made from a grain sack) to store the day’s haul. Gum was also kept in Māori flax kete (baskets).
Most kauri gum ended up in Auckland before being sent to the US and UK. Kauri gum was the leading export from the early port in the late 19th century, ahead of kauri timber, wool and gold.
The kauri gum industry continued into the 20th century. In the 1930s, cheaper materials had been invented for making varnish. The price of kauri gum fell, and by the 1940s the gum industry was coming to an end.
By then the kauri timber industry was also over, and formerly bustling towns around the region including Te Kōpuru, Aratapu and Tatarariki had been largely abandoned or become sleepy farming towns.
The kauri timber and gum industries are now largely confined to tourism and small scale artisan operations based on swamp kauri, with kauri now protected and felling of kauri typically only for cultural purposes, such as the building of waka for which a special permit is required.
Near GZ, you can visit examples of the dwellings that early European colonists would live in, including gum diggers. There is a sign at GZ, about an early gum digger, which you can use to calculate the coordinates, which are a short walk away.
How to find the cache
To solve the cache, look for the first year mentioned on the sign. Treat each digit as a single number and add them together then add one. Walk that many metres at 274 degrees West. Fortunately, this is the edge of the garden so you don't need a compass. If you are at the right spot, you will be able to see the door of the old Library at a straight line to the North.
To check your spot, go to the steps of the library. Walk 41 metres directly away from the door of the library at your back. You should end at the same spot at the edge of the garden.
The edge of the garden is made of stones. Look for a stone that is taller than the others at the edge of the garden (it may be partly concealed by ferns). The letterbox cache is behind that stone.
There is no need to enter the garden or damage the plants. This is a letterbox cache so if you have a letterboxing stamp you can also stamp the letterbox logbook. The code is in the geocaching logbook. Letterboxing was a hobby invented in the 1850s, far away in England, about the same time that the gum diggers were toiling in the fields of the Northern Wairoa.
The stamp in the cache is to stamp letterboxing books - it is not swag and should NOT be removed from the cache please.
This cache is placed with the permission of the Dargaville Museum. Please respect the garden and grounds. Use stealth to prevent the cache being smuggled. The carpark is locked after dark for safety reasons: please come during daylight hours and if in doubt, check the carpark open hours before your visit.
If you would like to project an exact solution before your visit, you can find it by determining the intersection of two lines:
The Kauri Gum sign: S 35° 57.518' E 173° 51.815' - project a line 274 degrees to the West
The Library steps: S 35° 57.537' E 173° 51.809' - project a line 6 degrees to the North
You can use the geochecker to check your solution and get the exact coordinates.
