rom here it is not far to the Hokianga Harbour and the most direct route is by way of the rather tortuous road to Rangiora, along the upper reaches of the Hokianga Harbour. From Rangiora, ferries leave regularly during the day for Rawene on the harbour's southern side where you can take State Highway 12 for the 25-kilometre drive to Opononi. This village was for one brief summer in 1955-56 home to one of our best-known animals - Opo, a female bottle-nosed dolphin, who enjoyed the company of swimmers. Dolphins still occasionally frequent the bay and fur seals haul out in bad weather.

Amateur botanists will find the Waima Forest, not far from Opononi on the Kaikohe road, of interest. Here two of the most recent of our plant discoveries were made: an undescribed Olearia in 1984 and a new Coprosoma in 1987. These unique plants are endangered by leaf-browsing possums and goats and the eradication or control of these pests is urgently needed.

From the Hokianga the road south takes you to the Waipoua State Forest, home to our two most magnificent trees, the giant kauri 'Tane Mahuta' (Lord of the Forest) and 'Te Matua Ngahere' (Father of the Forest). These trees have been growing in the Waipoua for between 1200 and 1500 years and would have been sizeable trees when the Maori first arrived. It is a sobering thought that, big as these trees are, bigger specimens once grew in New Zealand.

From Waipoua, State Highway 12 eventually brings you to the Trounson Kauri Park. Here, there is a nice collection of trees in pleasant surrounds, although after Waipoua the kauri seem a little puny. Because the park is fairly small and is not beside any sizeable area of native bush there are virtually no native birds here. It is a bit unusual to sit in native forest and listen to a chorus of exotic birds such as mynahs, magpies, blackbirds and rosellas. Recently robins and kokako have been introduced to Trounson and kiwi are also present

On the opposite side of State I-Iighway 12 from the Trounson Kauri park is the Taharoa Domain and the Kai Iwl lakes - Waikere, Taharoa and Kai Iwi. The lakes provide a home for a number of species of waterblrds, including dabchlcks and shags. Ducks also occur and the numbers of these burgeon in the shooting season. The lakes also provide some of the northernmost trout-fishing in New Zealand,

Travelling further south brings you to the Kaipara Harbour another important assembly and feeding point for wading birds, A giant petrel, known rather unkindly as the stinkpot, arrived near Dargaville almost 10,500 kilometres from where it was banded in the South Orkneys and other birds such as the red-tailed tropic bird have also been found in this area. Known as omakura to the Maori, this bird was highly prized for its two long, red, central tail feathers,

Jane Mander in her book The Story of a New Zealand River, written in the early part of this century, gives us a delightful account of the riverine scenery of the Kaipara:

From the mangrove banks to the sky a great variety of trees in fifty shades of evergreen covered every yard of space. There was a riotous spring colour in the forest, voluptuous gold and red in the clumps of yellow kowhai and crimson rata, and there were masses of greeny white clematis and bowers of pale tree fem to rest the satiated eye. Stiff laurel-like puriris stood beside the dropping fringe of the lacey rimu: hard blackish kahikateas brooded over the oak-like ti-toki with its lovely scarlet berry.

This, presumably, was before goats, deer and possums arrived.

If you are following the west coast road south to Auckland, continue on State Highway 12 until the Brynderwyn Hills where you rejoin State Highway 1. About 30 kilometres further south at Wellsford turn right on to State Highway 16 which follows the southern shore of the Kaipara Harbour.

If you have time take the road which runs to the end of the south head of the Kaipara Harbour. As in many places the dairy farms have been largely supplanted by deer farms. There are large numbers of red deer but also one or two herds of fallow deer, which provide a welcome change being, to my mind, more attractive animals.

Paradise ducks are often seen in the fields along with plovers and many pukeko. Peafowl, too, are quite common along the bush edges and can often be quite clearly seen from the road.

From the Kaipara south to Auckland there are not many land birds, but look out for waterfowl in lakes such as Rototuna and Roto Otuauru and for recently liberated red-legged partridges around Helensville. Helensville was originally a timber town, founded during the onslaught on the mighty kauri forests which once covered this region. These forests were a slow-growing but quickly exploited resource and once they were gone Helensville stagnated for many years, but is now showing signs of a revival.