History is Written by the Victors!

Since we have been here a good while, we are learning more and more about where to go to find the cool places off the beaten track. The last two holiday weekends (two Mondays off in the summer in succession… not bad) we have headed out tramping to magnificent places where the marketers have not been (nor lots of other people).

This weekend we went to Pureora, which came to our attention as it was the flash point in the 1970s for environmental protest across New Zealand against the destruction and clearcutting of native forests by the big companies. It is NZ’s equivalent to Clayoquoit Sound in BC or the tree sitting in Northern California. People protested and sat in trees to protect some of the biggest remnants in the area that were about to be cut. Only… in this case they won. They protected these trees and over the next decade pressure built and ultimately a national law was passed preventing all future cutting of native forests. The companies are still cutting and replanting the areas previously cut (agriforestry) but all existed native forests are protected… about 30% of New Zealand.

So I am not sure if you can read the fine print, but here are two NZ Department of Conservation interpretive signs heralding the protests and the end of clearcutting. I love the picture on the 2^nd sign of the big machinery destroying the forest, and this quote from it… “all this activity [destruction due to forestry practices] has left us with the diverse and fragmented landscapes of Pureora. The work of restoring some continuity to these forests and re-establishing healthy wildlife communities is the challenge for today and the future.” Wow… you would not see these sorts of signs in Canada. In fact the current history of our forests seems to be written by Irving in their greenwash TV ads. This shows there is another way and at least some folks in the world have found it…. oh and by the way the rural economy in New Zealand is not in shambles, it has not been destroyed by the logging ban, though the loggers at the time would have had you believe it. Hmmm.

This is looking up at a tree from the ground

    A wonderful trail infrastructure preserves the forest

                                                                                  Forest Regeneration

So here are a few more pictures from the weekend travels. Ginny goes "Kiwi"...

    This is the Kiwi hiking top, but where are your tan khaki shorts?

Good Kiwi hiking form... hiking up a 

stream "trail" with her hiking boots on.

Lake Taupo from the Umukarikari Ridge. Lake Taupo is the crater of the
largest volcano to blow in recorded human history (186AD). Both Rome
and China had it documented in their records based on red sunsets and
climate cooling.