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."
The 78,000ha Pureora Forest Park is an ancient rainforest of giant native tōtara, rimu, matai, miro and kahikatea trees, rich with rare native bird life. The park preserves the last remnants of extensive native podocarp forests that once covered most of the central North Island. When deep under the canopy of these ancient trees, it’s easy to imagine primeval New Zealand as it existed thousands of years ago.
In 1840 around two thirds of New Zealand was still covered in virgin forest. Over the next 140 years this provided the basis for a strong indigenous timber industry. In 1946 Pureora Forest was one of the last native forests to be opened up for logging.
PUREORA PROTEST: Pureora was on the chopping block. The Forest Service intended to finish what had begun decades earlier: the logging of all the merchantable timber here, the pick of this country’s lowland podocarp trees. This despite the fact that, in 1977, a 341,160-signature petition had been presented to Parliament, demanding an end to native-forest logging and legal recognition of native forests.
Anti-logging protests began in earnest. Conservation activists Stephen King, Shirley Guildford, and others decided that the situation demanded something more emphatic than tabling a petition. Protesters set up camp. They sat on the ground in front of trees and on tracks, and hid under logs. They had a novel way of erecting platforms on treetops, sitting over it to protest logging operations in the forests. Their efforts gained media attention and success was three-fold: Pureora Forest Park was established in 1978; the New Zealand Government changed the rules to permanently end logging operations in all state-owned native forests; and the Native Forest Restoration Trust was formed which ensured that the park develops several areas into its present format.
HIGHLIGHTS: Pureora Forest straddles the Hauhungaroa and Rangitoto ranges west of Lake Taupō and east of Te Kuiti. It is one of the largest intact tracts of native forest in the North Island and has high conservation value due to the variety of plant life and animal habitats available.
The park offers excellent camping, picnicking, swimming and forest walks. There are more than fifteen Department of Conservation managed walking tracks, ranging from ten minutes to three days in length. A highlight for some may be climbing Mount Pureora (1165 metres). Tall native trees – such as rimu, tōtara, matai, miro and kahikatea – are found at lower altitudes along with tawa and tree ferns. As you climb higher, the forest changes and hardy plants like kamahi are found. Near the summit, sub-alpine herb fields dominate.
Visitors may be interested to find a buried, subfossil forest that was submerged under pumice after the eruption of the Taupō crater (c. AD 186) that was discovered in 1983. Remnants of the original rimu forest are still visible as preserved, buried logs. The way the trees fell following the eruption is evident, with large tree trunks lying in rows. The site can be found not far from the DOC field centre.
Not far from the DOC field centre too, is a 12-metre-tall tower accessible to the general public. It is perfect for bird watching if visitors can manage the ascent. You will be taken right up into the forest canopy to listen to the chorus of songs from the many native birds that live there.
Keep an eye out for logging machinery – relics of the past. Visitors might find:
- A steam log hauler – the vintage steam hauler on Pikiariki Rd was used until the late 1940s to haul logs from the forest for milling.
- An early crawler tractor – in the 1950s, the two-tonne Caterpillar tractor on Link Rd was used to pull split tōtara posts and battens from the bush. When it broke down it was left where it stood for the forest to claim.
The Ongarue Tramway and Spiral – much of the tram system survives unmodified making it a nationally significant site which represents an important part of the timber industry and pioneering New Zealand.
Perhaps the best news is there are geocaches at many of these locations to point the way.
THE TIMBER TRAIL AND TE ARAROA TRAIL: Among the more popular recreational uses, tramping and mountain biking trails are well marked in Pureora Forest. Once the realm of hardcore trampers and hunters, this deep wilderness can now be explored on an 85-kilometre trail that reveals not only its awe-inspiring beauty but also the story of how this special place has changed over the ages.
The Timber Trail follows the path of old logging roads and tramlines, linked with purpose-built single track and a series of thrilling suspension bridges. It runs between the tiny settlements of Pureora and Ongarue, with even smaller Piropiro around the halfway mark. Limited road access, remoteness and memorable accommodation in the middle make a two-day, one-way ride the most rewarding approach. The Timber Trail can be ridden in either direction, but is typically ridden north to south, starting at Pureora and finishing in Ongarue.
THE CACHE: The cache container is one of those plastic jars, usually given away at events. I've had this one for ages, hoping for an occasion like this. Follow the Timber Trail past the little carving at the entrance. Coordinates may differ under tree cover, so use the hints. Please bring your own pen/cil.