A couple weekends ago, I spent an amazing day hiking with some friends to see The Karapoti Rātā, which is the biggest Northern Rātā tree in NZ. Which, according to my own extrapolation, means that it's the biggest one in the world, as Rātā are native to NZ. Anyway, it's really big, and I'll tell you more about it later, but first let's revel in the beauty of the native bush we hiked through on our way there.
We drove out to Upper Hutt, about half an hour outside Wellington, to the Atakarawa Forest, which is stunning!
The bush was lush and bursting with plants of every kind, and while we were usually right in the thick of it, sometimes we crested a hill and glimpsed views like this one.
And this one.
We stopped for a snack break when we got to the Little Akatarawa River, which we then followed upstream for a couple hours, as it leads the way to the Rātā.
The path we followed was narrow and sometimes difficult to distinguish from the bush around it, especially when it did veer away from the reassuring clarity of the river. But the upside to that is the sense of complete immersion in the beautiful forest.
Every bend in the stream led to new and spectacular scenes.
I noticed this break in the canopy because it let in so much light, but it was only later when I looked at the picture that I noticed how the foliage frames the cloud, with blue sky all around. How cool!
It was very thoughtful of Papatūānuku (The Earth Mother) to have this enormous tree grow near this river, because it was delightful to walk along with its cheerful burbling joining in our conversations. By the way, the friends I went with are from the Māori Speakers' Group I go to on Saturdays, so we only spoke Māori the whole day, which made me feel even more connected to the natural world around me.
In some places there were quite steep cliffs on either side of the river, with just a narrow, rocky path for us to walk on, which was great fun.
This particular area had an ancient feel to it. The whole forest is largely unchanged for thousands of years, but this bit seemed determined to convince me that a dinosaur was about to peek out from behind any given tree. In a good way.
There were several little waterfalls as well.
After several hours of hiking, miraculously without getting lost (thanks entirely to my friends, as I would have been wandering around without a clue), we made it to The Karapoti Rātā. At least, we're pretty sure we did. It was astonishingly huge, but unmarked (as it should be), so we can't completely rule out that there was a bigger one nearby. But we did some adventuring and didn't find one, so I think this is it.
This amazing tree was "discovered" by white people only 11 years ago, and is estimated to be at least 1000 years old, but likely even more. It is 39m (128ft) tall and 15.4m (50.5ft) around. And it is pretty overwhelming to stand at the base and look up.
Of course, something that big is not easy to capture in a photograph, but here is one more focused on the top, to give you that perspective. It towers above the canopy of the rest of the forest!
It is amazing to think of this tree starting as a tiny sprout over a thousand years ago! It was so inspiring to see, and it was amazing to spend the day in the woods with friends. I would recommend the hike to adventurous types who don't mind climbing over boulders and fording streams, but I would definitely go with someone who is good at finding their way!
If you'd like to read more about this amazing tree, click here.
