The Tuia Mātauranga Pōkai Whenua GeoTour follows the footsteps of early explorers of Aotearoa New Zealand taking you to places where leaders of the past searched for food, resources and ways to adapt and survive in this new land.
Use the Pōkai Whenua GeoTour as your classroom to explore the stories of the past, in the present, to preserve what is unique in Aotearoa New Zealand for the future.
Collect the codewords to get the Geocoin puzzle piece.
To be able to complete this GeoTour and receive your special Geocoin collectable, remember to take a note of the codeword placed in the cache. This will need to be recorded in your passport which can be downloaded here.
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"63 of the 150 Pōkai Whenua GeoTour caches will contain a randomly placed special FTF token (a replica of the Tuia Mātauranga GeoTour commemorative coin). This is yours to keep! If you find more than one, you might consider leaving it for the next person who finds the cache."
BUSH SICKNESS: In the early part of the 20th century, forested lands in the Tokoroa-Taupō-Rotorua area were cleared for grazing. Although the grass grew well, cattle and sheep became unwell and often died from what became known as bush sickness. Although bush sickness had been studied extensively, by the 1920s there was debate about what caused it. A decade later scientists discovered the cause to be a deficiency in the trace element cobalt. Fertilizers, formulated to add just a few grams of cobalt per hectare, remedied the problem.
KAINGAROA FOREST: Even before a solution to bush sickness could be found, it was discovered that volcanic soils did not adversely affect certain tree species. Experimental planting of Douglas fir and radiata pine began on a 5 acres (2.0 ha) block at Kaingaroa in 1901 and continued from 1906 using Waiotapu prison labour. By 1932 the pines averaged 128 ft (39 m) and 2.1 ft (0.64 m) in diameter. Later planting was an unemployment relief scheme. From the 1920s the forest was owned by the New Zealand government as a state asset. It became known as the Kaingaroa State Forest.
In the 1930s, the government planted almost 14,000 hectares of the Kaingaroa Plateau with millions of pine trees. Kaingaroa Forest was at the time, one of the largest man-made forests in the world. Plantings made in the 1920s and 30s were maturing just in time for the post-war construction boom.
FORESTRY’S IMPACT: After World War II, the area’s economy exploded – with farming, forestry and tourism leading the way. It was a time of rapid growth. Rotorua’s population increased more than six-fold in three decades – from 7,500 at the end of the war to 46,000 in 1976.
In the early 1950s, work began on the giant Tasman Pulp and Paper plant in Kawerau and the New Zealand Forest Products mill at Kinleith, Tokoroa. Forestry and the timber industry have employed thousands of local residents over the years. Maori and Pacifica peoples have dominated the forestry workforce as cross-cutters and skid-hands, log loaders and truck drivers.
Nationally, forestry contributes an annual gross income of around $6.7 billion. This equates to 1.6% of New Zealand’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Forestry employs around 35,000 people in wood production, processing, and the commercial sector. Wood products are New Zealand’s third largest export earner, behind dairy and meat.
THE CACHE: The cache has room for a logbook only. Please bring your own pen/cil. Take care when parking.