Are you ready to be moved?

Your 3 hour Kauri Country adventure departs from Matakohe, on the Twin Coast Discovery Highway through Northland (State Highway 12) 140 kms north of Auckland.

At Matakohe, head for Matakohe House Cafe - you'll find a warm welcome, just say you're going to Kauri Country - or our pick-up point near the Kauri Museum.

The Kauri Country 4WD will collect you from either location at 10am and 1:30pm daily. We take a maximum of 8 passengers per trip so bookings are essential.

This unique eco adventure begins on land that once was a Kauri forest - land still worked by a family whose pioneering forebears carved a livelihood from the kauri, one of the largest trees found anywhere in the world. Six-hundred-year-old specimens - strapping teenagers in kauri terms - still stand there.

Your friendly guide is educated in the ecology of the land. He knows the bushmen's stories, the tales of courage and hardship borne of the kauri industry. A living link to a unique era in New Zealand history, he'll bring it to life and give you an authentic role in the story.

First, you'll learn the natural history of the kauri - how the forest stretched from ocean to ocean; how the great trees grow and the impression they make on the environment.

As the tour moves on, you'll see authentic remnants of the times and handle antique tools used to tame the forest giants - bushmen could spend several days cutting down a single tree - and turn them into timber for houses or spars for sailing ships. You'll drink tea brewed in a 'billy' over a cookhouse shanty fire as you listen to bushmen's yarns.

You'll put on a pair of gum boots and dig in the earth with a kauri spear for fossilised kauri gum - the amber nuggets of resin shed by the trees and a great souvenir to take home. You'll also meet a working team of bullocks, the mighty, slow-moving engines that hauled the massive logs out of the forest.

Kauri Country is a hands-on-eco-experience, that brings alive a fascinating past.