Travelsmartplanet

The Kauri trees are endangered so it’s really special when you can go into a forest and see quite of few very old ones. The Arataki Visitor Centre goes to great lengths to preserve and protect them. You can climb up a high trail and see then at the top reaching for the sky. The circular cluster is called The Cathedral.

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In the trails outside the Arataki Visitor Centre in Waitakere NZ, you can get lost in the sea of ferns.

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The silver fern has been a symbol of New Zealand since the 1880s. To Maori, the shape of the fronds stood for strength, resistance, and power. To other New Zealanders, it’s exemplifies their homeland as it grows throughout the country from the North Island down to the coast of the South Island. It is the most abundant of all ferns in New Zealand. You can find it on all kinds of souvenirs. We bought sports socks with ferns on them as a momento of New Zealanders who enjoy lots of physical activity. 

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You can take quiet walks in Waitakere’s Arataki Visitor Centre. These steps lead up and up and up to the treetop Cathedral of ancient Kauri trees. Worth the walk.

Tags: Ancient, Arataki, Arataki Visitor Centre, Auckland, cathedral, Centre, city, ecology, foliage, fresh air, Kauri, Kauri tree, local, location, Manukau, Nature, nature trail, nature walk, New Zealand, NZ, ocean, outdoors, quiet, range, regional park, scenery, sights, sightseeing, sky, stairs, steps, tour, tourist, trail, tranquility, travelblogger, tree, treetop, view, view from the top, visitor, visitor centre, Waitakere, Waitakere ranges, Waitakere Ranges Regional Park, walk

It’s surprising to find this peace and quiet in this amazing location outside the Arataki Visitor Centre in Waitakere so close to the bustling city of Auckland. These steps take you eventually up up up to the sky view. 

Tags: Arataki, Arataki Visitor Centre, Auckland, Centre, city, foliage, fresh air, local, location, Manukau, Nature, nature trail, nature walk, New Zealand, NZ, ocean, outdoors, peace and quiet, range, regional park, scenery, sights, sightseeing, sky, stairs, steps, tour, tourist, tranquility, travelblogger, view, view from the top, visitor, visitor centre, Waitakere, Waitakere ranges, Waitakere Ranges Regional Park

We liked it when this sign on an Arataki trail in Waitakere NZ teaches us how dead trees are a life system for other life forms: slaters, cockroaches, millipedes, wetas, spiders live on the decay.

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You just never know who you might meet when you travel. This wooden sculpture of a male is inside the Arataki Visitor Centre and Himione Heketarere is carved on the bottom.

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From the Arataki Visitor Centre in Waitakere, you can see the Hauraki Gulf (Pacific), Rangitoto, and north past Auckland city centre. If you gaze south past Auckland Airport, you’ll glimpse the Bombay Hills and west will lead your eyes to Manukau Harbour (Tasman Ocean).

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Outside the Arataki Visitor Centre in Waitakere NZ, you can often see a local bug, the Weta in this hotel especially built for them. The second image is what they look like. Wetas are over 100 million years old (they knew the dinosaurs!) and haven’t changed much in all that time.

Tags: Arataki, Arataki Visitor Centre, Auckland, bug house, bugs, Centre, hotel, local, local bug, Nature, nature trail, New Zealand, NZ, outdoors, range, regional park, sights, sightseeing, tourist, travelblogger, visitor, visitor centre, Waitakere, Waitakere ranges, Waitakere Ranges Regional Park, Weta

This impressive 11-metre high pou (post) stands outside the Arataki Visitor Centre as a guardian to the centre and Waitakere ranges. The whakairo (carvings) are carved from Kauri trees by Te Kawerau Maki, the local mana whenua (guardians of the land). The story it tells is of their ancestors.

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