On the verges and in the bush surrounding the redwood plantation, saplings had sprung alive in shockingly bright colours. Shining in the sunlight they were pink, yellow and blue.
In the gardens surrounding Huka Lodge, a great spring clearing had taken place with everything immaculate, except for huge piles of debris - most of which was caused by the cyclone a few months back.
At Huka Falls, the river was seen to be quite low and probably will remain so until the snow on the mountains thaws.
On our trek through the bush, as always, we marvelled at how straight the redwoods grow.
Thankfully they were not too affected by the winter storms and the paths between them were clear and dry.
One route was labelled “Madman’s Track”. It was tough to see why, it was not particularly steep or precipitous and surely taking a walk through these woods is just about the sanest thing anyone could do.
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Monday Walkers
Short and sharp is probably an apt description of our walk.
Clouds of steam puffed from construction testing at Contact Energy’s Tauhara Geothermal Power Station as we made our way across farmland and up towards the old Fletcher’s Fire Lookout.
A ring of slopes and the kindly northern face of Mount Tauhara sheltered us from the blustery wind.
Pasture was replaced by a wide metal track, but the gentle rise continued relentlessly upwards. Fallen trees, large, trimmed trunks and some remaining standing pines lined our route. Atop we had a view for miles. Reporoa, Rainbow Mountain, the Taupō-Napier Highway and over to Hawke’s Bay were all visible in the distance.
A large cellphone tower dominates the flattened hilltop now, but a water tank, a couple of slabs of concrete and a solitary daffodil were lonely reminders of its once vital role.
Below lay our pumice lands, once maligned for causing “bush sickness”, but later valued as fertile ground for afforestation.
Indigenous forest, such as tōtara, had long been lost to fire and scrub, and bracken fern covered much of this land.
Native trees are slow-growing; kauri and rimu take 300 years to mature, in comparison to pinus radiata’s 30 years, so it was perhaps unsurprising that experimental planting of exotic forests would be trialled, especially when it was acknowledged soil cobalt deficiency had no detrimental effect on plant growth.
Douglas fir, larch and eucalyptus had their supporters but pinus radiata reigned supreme in the pumice soil.
Early European settler Earle Vaile sold land at Broadlands to Timberlands in 1925-1926. They on-sold to Afforestation Proprietary Limited and so the history of Tauhara Forest began.
Insightful work by Vivian Fail, who resurveyed and divided this land, taking account of its contours, began. Initial tracks built by hand later developed into arterial roads using mechanical graders.
Taupō now had an industry that provided work in planting, tree nursery, thinning, pruning, felling, milling and latterly wood chipping, pulping and processing, along with support services for the workforce.
Planting even provided work for notable Taupudlians Joe Story, Les Fulljames and Alan Pye during the Great Depression.
Lack of silverculture in the 1940s, possibly due to reduced personpower, could have spelled disaster, but fortuitously a wood wasp called Sirex noctilo killed and therefore culled the weaker, overstocked trees.
Another great threat to forestry was fire.
Acts of Parliament had set up fire districts to help control fire lighting in the danger seasons.
Nevertheless, during the long hot summer of 1946, a series of small fires and eventually a huge fire that burned from January 9 to 15, threatened the township and resulted in further legislation covering state and private forests and centralisation and co-ordination of fire authorities.
Controlling regrowth in fire breaks was difficult; physical removal, weedicides, planting smothering plants and strawberries worked well, but cattle grazing did not.
Before the days of monsoon water buckets swaying precariously under helicopters or water-bombing planes, shovelling earth and beating out flames were the firefighters’ weapons.
The jewels in the arsenal against catastrophic fire were education, prevention and of course early detection and notification.
At last, we come to our heroes - lookouts such as Hipaua, lonely, elevated structures from where human observers watched with binoculars and telescopes for telltale whisps of smoke and quickly informed firefighters of any potential emergency.
Today, some, like the old Fletcher’s Fire Lookout, are just relics or a slab of concrete - but what an important role they and the vigilant firewatchers had.
Ngā mihi nui to Tauhara Moana Trust, the farm manager and Contact Energy for giving us access to visit such an important piece of Taupō history.
Next week we have a longer walk planned.
If you would like to join us, or for more information, please email walkersmondaytaupo@gmail.com or follow us on Facebook at “Taupō Monday Walkers”.
