Kaingaroa Forest covers 2900 km² of the

Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaw ...

region of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, and is the largest forest plantation in New Zealand, and the second largest in the Southern Hemisphere (after the 6000km² Sabie/Graskop plantation in South Africa). The forest stretches from

Lake Taupō Lake Taupō (also spelled Taupo; mi, Taupō-nui-a-Tia or ) is a large crater lake in New Zealand's North Island, located in the caldera of the Taupō Volcano. The lake is the namesake of the town of Taupō, which sits on a bay in the lake's nor ...

in the south to

Kawerau Kawerau is a town in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is situated 100 km south-east of Tauranga and 58 km east of Rotorua. It is the seat of the Kawerau District Council, and the only town in Kawerau Distri ...

to the north. The headquarters of the forest are at the small settlement of Kaingaroa, Bay of Plenty, 50 kilometres southeast of

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...

. Prior to planting the area was a tussock and scrub plateau (ranging between and high), formed on

volcanic ash Volcanic ash consists of fragments of rock, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass, created during volcano, volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter. The term volcanic ash is also often loosely used t ...

. The New Zealand

Ministry for Culture and Heritage The Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH; ) is the department of the New Zealand Government responsible for supporting the arts, culture, built heritage, sport and recreation, and broadcasting sectors in New Zealand and advising government on ...

gives a translation of "long area of land" for ''Kāingaroa''. The forest was first planted in the late 1920s and owned as a state asset by the New Zealand government. Experimental planting of

douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...

and

radiata pine ''Pinus radiata'' ( syn. ''Pinus insignis''), the Monterey pine, insignis pine or radiata pine, is a species of pine native to the Central Coast of California and Mexico ( Guadalupe Island and Cedros island). It is an evergreen conifer in the ...

began on a block at Kaingaroa in 1901 and continued from 1906 using

Waiotapu Waiotapu (Māori language, Māori for "sacred waters") is an active Geothermal (geology), geothermal area at the southern end of the Okataina Volcanic Centre, just north of the Reporoa caldera, in New Zealand's Taupo Volcanic Zone. It is 27 kilo ...

prison labour. By 1932 the pines averaged high and in diameter. Later planting was as an unemployment relief scheme. While under government control it was known as the Kaingaroa State Forest. In the 1980s the government sought to sell the forests to private interests. Several

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, ...

went to Court to prevent the sale, arguing that they were the

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

of the land, that the land had been wrongfully taken from them, and that the government should retain the land until a settlement of the claims had been reached. It has taken 20 years to reach settlement of those claims and to see the forest lands returned to their traditional owners. On 1 July 2009, it passed to a group of tribes that were the traditional land owners in partial settlement of their claims that the Crown breached the Treaty of Waitangi. The forests themselves (the trees) continue to be owned by a private company (Kaingaroa Timberlands Ltd), which holds a forestry licence over the land.

New Zealand State Highway 38 State Highway 38 (SH 38) is a road in the North Island of New Zealand that starts from near Waiotapu, and ends at Wairoa, where it connects to . It is the shortest connection from the central North Island ( Rotorua) to the East Coast ( Gisbor ...

, from Wai-O-Tapu to

Murupara Murupara is a town located in the Whakatāne District and Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island. The town is situated in an isolated part of the region between the Kaingaroa Forest and Te Urewera protected area, on the banks of th ...

crosses the forest.

References

External links

1:50,000 map of forest village

Kaingaroa Forest on Google maps
*

Tephra Tephra is fragmental material produced by a volcanic eruption regardless of composition, fragment size, or emplacement mechanism. Volcanologists also refer to airborne fragments as pyroclasts. Once clasts have fallen to the ground, they rem ...

br>soils
;Photos * 190
Kaingaroa Plain and mud covered ridges from the 1886 Tarawera eruption
* 192

* 1961 ttp://natlib.govt.nz/records/23149440 bulldozer* 196
aerial view
* 197
aerial view of settlement
{{Rotorua District Rotorua Lakes District Forests of New Zealand Forestry in New Zealand Geography of the Bay of Plenty Region Populated places in the Bay of Plenty Region