Wenita Forest Products is my western boundary neighbour. Wenita has 30,000 ha of pine forest under management. They’ll be felling some trees on a block on my eastern boundary and I received a call from James McEwan about access along an unformed road on the perimeter of the boundary. I talked to James about my plans to create a Kauri forest, and he said that Wenita had some Kauri trees growing on one of their blocks in Akatore. If I wanted to see them, he’d take me over. Well, I jumped at the chance to see some Kauri trees growing at -46 degrees latitude.

The stand is just a dozen or so trees that were planted by the New Zealand Forestry Service (that managed the area prior to Wenita).

The trees were planted amongst some indigenous bush and left to grow naturally. There are some younger trees, which I suspect are naturally seeded from the larger specimens.

It was exciting to see them this far south, and an encouraging sign for my forestry plans. My thanks to James McEwan and his colleague Ian Young for taking time out of their day to show me this stand.

13 March 2023

Back