Simon & Caroline's World Tour 07/08

Today's destination was the Waipoua Kauri Forest home of the world's second largest tree. With names like 'God of the forest' and 'Father of the forest' we were expecting some pretty big trees. Nevertheless we were blown away by the size of these giants. The world's largest trees are the Californian sequioas which were pretty big, however when you see Tane Mahuta (God of the forest) emerge through the gap in the other big trees you could say it's a pretty close thing. This giant is a whopping 6 metres wide and certainly lords it over the forest. Te Matua Ngahere (Father of the Forest) is equally impressive. He is techincally New Zealand's second largest tree because he is not quite as tall as 'the God' and his trunk volume (how much wood you'd get if you were to chop him down) is not as large, however, he is wider than 'the god' and has a girth of 16.4m which has to be seen to be believed.