All photos are taken along Highway 12 heading south.


Kauri are not the prettiest trees. They very much look like they have roots for tree branches. Everything up there looks horribly matted and tangled like unshowered curly hair, in a climate where trees with long straight hair branches can easily flourish.


I'm breaking my rule on image size so you can get the full kauri experience, top to bottom. Seriously, if you rotate this image 180°, it looks like a regular tree.


The last two photos are the upper and lower halves of a less grossly deformed, but also less famous, kauri. Kauri are not common, so even in their eponymous forest they are greatly outnumbered by what I'll call normal trees.


The younger a kauri is, the less tangled its branches and the more leaves on each branch. It's like the opposite of the Ugly Duckling.

More Non-Roads along Highway 12

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