We ventured as far north as we've been this week, to the Kauri Museum just south of Dargaville. Kauris are the largest tree second only to the Sequoia and provided logs for early Settlers - for houses, dams, bridges, ships and furniture. They are huge. We've yet to see a really big one in the flesh but will when we do our tour of Northland, which is coming up soon. Most interesting were the black & white photos of the pioneers cutting and transporting these huge logs with only saws and ox to help them - it often took teams of 16 oxen to drag a single log! As time moved on they built trams and railways to help, and entire shipping routes were set up for exporting them. Many of the original forests were decimated. As well as logs the Kauri also provided gum - a resin akin to Amber. Fossilised it's used like a precious stone, or melted down to make varnish and paint. Gumdigging was an entire industry of its own.
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