We left the magic and spiritual grounds around the lighthouse at Cape Reinga and headed toward the forest land of the Kauri tree and the work of the gum diggers of 100 years ago. There is a Northland Park and ancient forest at Awanui just off the main highway south where a 'gum digger' village has been faithfully reconstructed around an original working gum field.
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| (PIC) - Kauri Gum..... |
Kauri gum is sometimes called copal or mistakenly amber. Copal is a general term for resins used to make varnish. Amber is a hard, fossilised resin used to make jewellery, and much of it found in the northern hemisphere is millions of years old. There has been little carbon dating of kauri gum, but most I am told is probably only thousands or tens of thousands of years old. It can accurately be called copal or resin, but in New Zealand it is usually called kauri gum.
(PIC) - A reasonably young Kauri......
What and who are gum diggers? well there is kauri gum (as seen above) and there are diggers to get the gum out! Let me explain a wee bit further. New Zealand’s giant kauri trees ooze resin from their bark, leaves and cones. This protects the tree by filling holes and damaged areas. It builds up in the forks of the tree, around the roots and on the ground underneath. Kauri can live for more than 1,000 years, almost 2000 years in some places, over which time they produce a large amount of resin. Occasionally branches oozing resin drop to the ground, and eventually the tree dies and falls.
What and who are gum diggers? well there is kauri gum (as seen above) and there are diggers to get the gum out! Let me explain a wee bit further. New Zealand’s giant kauri trees ooze resin from their bark, leaves and cones. This protects the tree by filling holes and damaged areas. It builds up in the forks of the tree, around the roots and on the ground underneath. Kauri can live for more than 1,000 years, almost 2000 years in some places, over which time they produce a large amount of resin. Occasionally branches oozing resin drop to the ground, and eventually the tree dies and falls.
(PIC) - New forest over ancient swamp land.....
Over time, the ground where kauri trees grew becomes a litter of wood and gum, which is often gradually buried by soil or drowned in swamps. Kauri gum is found naturally only in New Zealand, because kauri trees are endemic to the country. This is what happened in this forest over 100,000 years ago; the ancient Kauri died and the land became swamps through natural causes over the years. This is volatile land and is prone to earthquake, fire, flood, cyclone, volcanic activity, there has even been a tsunami or two. One was on record in 1450 with waves 32m high. There has also been a recorded cyclone of 170mph; who really knows, but what the swamps did was to preserve the fallen kauri.
It was then just a simple matter of finding out where they fell, then digging down several feet into the old swamp lands which had created new forest and there if they were lucky were the ancient trees fully preserved. Specially adapted tools and hard graft were needed.
(PIC) - Digging to find the Kauri.....
Imagine digging and finding a tree that has an average girth of around 10mtrs, that's 30 feet to walk round, and up to an average total height of 40mtrs, half of which is the trunk itself! It was a skill in itself to find a kauri several feet under forest that was once a swamp. Special long prodding poles were used called spears later called 'jokers' because they could prod and bring up a sample to see if it was kauri or just some old bit of wood (a joke, hence joker)
Imagine digging and finding a tree that has an average girth of around 10mtrs, that's 30 feet to walk round, and up to an average total height of 40mtrs, half of which is the trunk itself! It was a skill in itself to find a kauri several feet under forest that was once a swamp. Special long prodding poles were used called spears later called 'jokers' because they could prod and bring up a sample to see if it was kauri or just some old bit of wood (a joke, hence joker)
(PIC) - gum boots outside an authentic diggers home.....
The diggers wore 'gumboots' (we call them wellingtons).
Gum digging was dirty, muddy work, and diggers working in swamps typically wore long rubber boots. New Zealanders call these gumboots – not because the boots were used on the gum fields, but because they were made from gum or rubber.
(PIC) - Kauri tunnelling by skeleton spades.....
When found, pits and then tunnels on a mini mining scale had to be dug out by hand using special spades called skeletons (the best were made of Sheffield steel) to get at the gum around and under the sunken trees. It was a tough graft over endless hours to fill their sacks and take them off for value. Most of the time the value was only enough to feed their families for the day. The trader or dealer taking the profits.
An early consignment of gum was reportedly sent to London in the early 1840s to make fire-kindlers and marine glue. This was what the Maori predominately used it for but its real value would be as an ingredient in varnish, which in the 1800s was made from the resins of various trees. Kauri gum was found to be superior to other resins, and by the mid-1840s was exported to manufacturers in the UK and America. By the 1860s, exporting kauri gum was an established industry and was to remain so for over ninety years.
The end of the industry was in the 1930s when cheaper synthetics were developed for making varnish and linoleum. The price of gum fell, and by the 1940's it was a sunset industry.
(PIC) - A felled Kauri used in whole to carve out a waka (Maori canoe).....
(PIC) - A felled Kauri used in whole to carve out a waka (Maori canoe).....
Digging and tunnelling was indeed a major 19th century source of employment of these two impressive islands be it Maori or Settler. Gold, Greenstone (jade) and coal were the hard graft labour intensive working environment industries a century plus ago. In further blogs I will be chatting about those as we venture further south through the Coromandel Peninsular region and on into South Island.
Surprisingly to me I have seen little of NZ's main exporting industry of the past 100 years, lamb, dairy products and wool. There is about 4.5 million people in New Zealand and 30 million sheep, where are they! I have seen cattle, llamas, deer, but few sheep. Perhaps I am not in the right part of the country. I guess maybe being the summer the lambs are already off the grass and heading for slaughter. Maybe I will see more baa baas on my journey south.
Surprisingly to me I have seen little of NZ's main exporting industry of the past 100 years, lamb, dairy products and wool. There is about 4.5 million people in New Zealand and 30 million sheep, where are they! I have seen cattle, llamas, deer, but few sheep. Perhaps I am not in the right part of the country. I guess maybe being the summer the lambs are already off the grass and heading for slaughter. Maybe I will see more baa baas on my journey south.
(PIC) - palm and tree fern grow abundantly....
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| (PIC) - Ferry journey at sunset.... |
(PIC)-The Light House Motel at 9am......
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What a two day visit so far to the Northlands and it was not finished yet. Another kauri forest experience tomorrow and a 'wow' experience to see the 'big tree'. We are now on day 42 of our global adventure, four days into North Island, New Zealand.
DKT
Blog 13 to follow
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