This central area of the North Island was one of the last places that colonial British rule penetrated. The geography of the area was rugged, hilly, densely forested and fiercely protected by the Maori tribes. Additionally the ‘New Zealand Wars’ sporadically fought from 1845 to 1872 led to the Kīngitanga movement whereby “Some tribes wanted a Māori king to oversee their affairs, specifically to unite the tribes in maintaining ownership of the land they still controlled. In 1858 Potatau Te Wherowhero became the first Māori king…”. In 1860 he died and his son Tāwhiao inherited the kingship. The Crown did not take this dual monarch plan well and the Governor of  NZ demanded that “Tāwhiao submit ‘without reserve’ to Queen Victoria.” War ensued and Tāwhiao and his followers were declared rebels and their land in the Waikato region was confiscated by the Crown. They moved to the Taumarunui area, the lands of their Ngāti Maniapoto relatives. The area became known as ‘King Country’ by Europeans, and by Māori as ‘Te Rohe Pōtae’, which loosely translates as ‘the area of the hat’ – supposedly referring to an incident in which King Tāwhiao defined the area’s boundaries by throwing a hat onto a map.

This monument in the town park bears the outline of King Country and a top hat symbolizing the method by which the boundary was established!

By 1882 under pressure from the government the local iwi agreed to allow a survey across their land for a railroad. This led to gradual opening of the land to Europeans.

Additionally “The Native Land Court, while ostensibly a legal mechanism for land transfer, functioned as a deliberate instrument of colonization. Its design was to dismantle communal Māori land tenure, as articulated by former Attorney-General Henry Sewell, who stated it was intended to ‘destroy if possible, the principle of communism which ran through the whole of their institutions’. This process created systemic economic and social disadvantage for Māori, directly contributing to their ‘virtually landless’ status and the erosion of tribal structures. The profound effects of these policies continue to be addressed through contemporary Treaty settlements, underscoring the long-term impact of historical land dispossession on indigenous communities.” References HERE, HERE, and HERE.

With the railroad in place exploitation of the natural resources quickly ensued and the native forests were decimated. Coal mining was briefly pursued and with the land opened sheep and cattle were introduced. The soil was poor for this purpose and the animals suffered bush sickness, a wasting disease due to poor nutrition. Many farms failed until the application of fertilizer and especially cobalt to the soil improved the conditions. It is a land of boom and bust and is currently experiencing a bit of bust!

Main street at 6am, quiet and almost empty. The Bakery was open for a hot meat pie breakfast!

Today’s adventure was a walk in the woods, and these woods felt different from all our other walks in the woods! We visited the Ohinetonga Scenic Reserve at the edge of the small town of Owhango and the Tongariro Forest Conservation Area. The native forest had been heavily logged from the early 1900’s when the railroad arrived in the area until the 1960’s when the accessible timber was gone. In the 1980’s local residents and the Tongariro Forest Park Promotion Committee fought government plans to clear cut most of the remaining forest. However, the Ohinetonga Scenic Reserve was spared the ravages of historic milling because it had been preserved by the town as a scenic reserve early in the 1900’s! Since the 2010’s further work to eradicate plant and pest invasives has revived the native fauna as well, with native bird species including the whio (blue duck), keruru (big colorful pigeon) and kiwi finding refuge here.

The beautiful lacy skeleton of a leaf greeted us as we entered the cool shade of the forest.

This forest felt more open and airy with large trees and tall tree ferns shading us. The lack of thick underbrush was noticeable and we had the feeling of entering an ancient landscape.

A huge totara tree dominates a section of the forest.

We have been to small remnant pockets of the once vast kauri forests in the northern reaches of the North Island and they are impressive. Kauri does not grow in this area though, the big trees here are tōtara, rimu, kahikatea and a few others.

The trail crosses a central lagoon on a boadwalk surrounded by the native forest.

The openness of the forest seems a hallmark of an old-growth landscape.

Going north today we stopped to hike to Omaru falls on the Mokau River.

Someone wants to be clear about the direction to the Falls!!!

Along the trail we had to cross the narrowest, most rickety swing bridge we’ve encountered! We should be glad it’s still here, the recent flood waters were clearly up to the deck of the swing bridge and overflowed onto the trail at several places!

A 30 min. hike through forest and along paddocks brought us to the overlook above the impressive falls.

For a slo-mo video of the falls click HERE.

We decided to drive a loop route back to the B&B and detour into the Pureora Forest Park to revisit the Maramataha Suspension Bridge along the Timber Trail bicycle route.

It is long and high over the gorge!

I can’t imagine riding a bike over it, or even walking a bike over it! It does move a lot with every footstep!

We went waterfall hunting today. Our goal was Tupapkurua falls about a 45 minute drive from the B&B. It looked like a less touristy, less tramped track to get there. On the way we had a much clearer view of Mount Ruapehu!

Snow capped, with a few clouds behind.

We found the car park for our trail and started hiking up through a thick forest of mostly tree ferns and shrubs with a few large trees rising above the canopy. It was nice and cool in the shade.

At Taranaki Lookout we had a view over the forest to the west towards Mt. Taranaki, which we could not see though the skies seemed clear in that direction.

We finally reached Tupapakurua falls which is impressive, except that it is across a deep and wide gorge! We couldn’t see the bottom! The hike through the forest was worth it though!After hiking back down the trail we drove in search of another falls, this one closer to the highway, but much more popular.

Tawhai Falls is just a 15 minute walk from the car park in Tongariro National Park.

For a slo-mo video of the falls click HERE. Our drive back to the B&B yielded great views of Mt. Ruapehu (with more clouds around the flat summit) and the cone shaped Mt. Ngauruhoe.

We are staying in the town of Taumarunui in central North Island for the coming week. We took a nice walk along the Whanganui River, just a few blocks from the Airbnb near the edge of town, to where it converges with the Ongarue River, near the opposite edge of town. There had been a Flood recently!

Walking along the trail through the park we noticed the trail had been gouged out, then it abruptly ended with a huge chunk of land washed away!

We learned later that the river flooded during torrential rains just 2 weeks earlier. The main roads into town were blocked by ‘slips’, what we would call ‘landslides’, and several outlying communities were cut off for a few days! All seemed cleared up and back to normal, save the missing section of riverside trail! October showers bring November flowers!

Although it looks like fall colors, these are springtime blooming azaleas!

On our walk back to the B&B through town we stopped at the local grocery store and were greeted with this Māori entryway into the store. According to news from the store opening;

“The new store [opened in 2023] has a specially commissioned … tōtara [a species of native tree] carving called ‘Nau Mai Ki Te Ao Hou’ which depicts the Māori food gods. Translating to mean ‘Welcome to New World’, it was made by local carvers from Ngāti Hāua [local iwi or tribe]…and the tōtara was sourced locally before being shaped using traditional methods over the space of three months. Situated in the kūwaha or store entrance, Nau Mai Ki Te Ao Hou will welcome future generations of shoppers to New World Taumarunui. “

More about the Māori presence in the area in later posts!