The Karapoti giant

Karapoti Rātā, Akatarawa Forest

Deep in the Akatarawa hides a giant of the old world. Over a thousand years ago the seed of a northern rātā sprouted in the canopy of another tree. In the time since it slowly consumed its host, growing into a gnarled monolith of a time long past. Fast forward to the present day and my friend Sofia wanted to go for a day walk. I knew just the spot.

Our first mistake was not stopping for coffee on the way to Karapoti Road, this would come to haunt one of us later. The car park was empty when we arrived, bar the sheep staring at us over the fence. We set off down the old Karapoti Road. Not far down the road we reached a steel post and reflective marker that signaled the beginning of the old tramway up toward Mt Barton. Pushing through the trees I discovered the wide benched track. Sofia looked at the ‘track’ and then looked me with that “is that actually the track you expect me to follow” look.

Once other sources of easily accessible wood had been exhausted in the region the loggers axe began looking further afield. Logging in the Akatarawa in the early 20th century, primarily targeting easy to mill rimu, matai, totara, kahikatea. An extensive network of infrastructure was built to support the enterprise including tramways with wooden rails for hauling out timber and mills deep in the forest. Rātā escaped the…