Waitakere Ranges Regional Park

The Waitakere Ranges are set in 16,000 hectares of protected rainforest located on the far west coast of Auckland on New Zealand's North Island.

The ranges were created 20 million years ago and have eroded over time to become a giant volcanic plateau dissected by deep gullies.

They were once dominated by enormous Kauri and Rimu trees whilst the giant Moa, the worlds largest ever flightless bird and countless other species of bird thrived in its pristine temperate rainforests.

The landscape of these ranges changed dramatically upon the arrival of man. Early maori settlers who arrived in the 1300s all but wiped out the flightless birds and this was followed in the 1800s by European 'pioneers' who proceeded to cull all of the trees for their valuable timber.

The Waitakere Ranges has since been protected from loggers and is undergoing the slow process of re-generation. On these pages I will take you on a tour of the park as I explore the re-generating forest in search of its tree ferns.

This view to the left is from the Arataki Visitor Centre where one can get a great view of the terrain with its rolling hills and gullies which as you can see are splattered with the umbrella-like canopies of tree ferns.

I often think of how undramatic this landscape would look without the tree ferns there to add a sense of sparkle to an otherwise matt green landscape.

The vast majority of the tree ferns in this vista are mature Cyathea medullaris whose rapid growth have taken them up and out of the understorey and into the intense bright sunlight.

This picture above is of one of the Waitakere's 4 great beaches; Piha. This is the first beach that we visited upon our arrival to New Zealand and it will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Ironically it was once a lagoon which stretched from the outer tip of Lion's Rock (centre left) up to the tip of the outcrop (above centre). This lagoon was flooded by European loggers in the early 1900s to allow them to more easily transport the felled trees by sea.

Piha is a fantastic and awesome beach and nothing can prepare your senses for the sight and sound of the huge crashng waves rolling in from the Tasman Sea.

Beautiful though it is, Piha also has a more sinister side. Due to its shape, the waves and tides tend to swirl as they enter the cove which creates unpredictable waves and worst of all, rips which are swirls of current that can drag swimmers and surfers out to sea. Every year, people do get killed at Piha and even a casual paddle up to the knees can be considered quite risky if the winds are high and tides are strong.

Whilst we've been there we have seen many rips and also huge waves crashing far out to sea which then create a massive swell along the beach. These swells could easily drag you back out to sea. Below is a picture of my wife getting as close as she dare!

As for the tree ferns? Well the Waitakeres provide a feast of tree ferns in a density of numbers that I really wasn't expecting. One can find 5 of the 8 NZ species here in Waitakere. They are Cyathea Dealbata (left), Cyathea medullaris, Cyathea smithii, Cyathea cunninghamii and Dicksonia squarrosa.

Of these species it is Cyathea dealbata and Cyathea medullaris (below) that are found most frequently. In some places they are the dominant plant species in the forest and can be found in groves of countless numbers.

Such is the vastness of the range that these 5 species grow in such a variety of habits that I will probably add new pages to this article over many months as I find new images to share.

I also hope to catch images of the tree ferns as the seasons change including new flushes in spring etc. The following pages are of what we have discovered so far.