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A Walk Through Kohitere Forest

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Description: The forest has an appeal to the eye with the brown carpet of fallen needles relieved by undergrowth species, many of them native. The original bush would have been cleared about 1900 - 1905.

Before the pine forest was planted the land was grazing country with grass mostly on the ridge and partly down the gullies. A large part of the bottom of the gullies had reverted to fern and other unwanted growth.

The trees have killed much of this and allowed more desirable native plant species to rejuvenate such as tawa, five finger, pittosporum, matipo and ground ferns.

In one area there are native meat eating snails.

Mile Posts

Leaving Denton Road the road winds around curves, gradually rising. The mile posts were to me the endangered native bird pictures, set on posts, at intervals of several hundred metres.

They were good excuses to stop and have a few minutes rest. Tree ferns have proliferated in their thousands from the few windburnt ones originally in the gullies. Now glades of them growing luxuriantly run down from the road.

The top of the ridge, near Arapaepae Road No 1 at 1268 feet (387m), was attained after a trip which was about as slow as when, 53 years ago with a friend, 50kg of No 6 fencing wire was taken up onto the Arapaepae Ridge. But more of this later. Gibson Road went on the north. A rotted log was lying by the side of the road. This could have been a rata which once rose above the surrounding bush, gracing its sombre surroundings with a blaze of colour, like a jewel in a crown. That and a very large stump with another tall stump, are the last remnants of the virgin bush that once clothed the foothills.

Two native pigeons were seen, evidently finding food in the pine forest.

About a mile along Gibson Road the forest finished and the open grass country emerged. The view was vast but the Levin area was indistinct, with a hazy atmosphere and a low sun.

On the east side, the pine forest stretched down with its neighbour, being second growth bush, to the north toward the Upper Gladstone Road.

Looking across the Makahika Stream Valley, the next range rose up with Square Knob, and Tawiri-kopukohu shrouded in mist.

Arapaepae No 2, at 1441 feet (440m), loomed up in the distance - tempting - but time and legs were against climbing it.

The return trip, mostly downhill, was done in faster time, but more jolting on the legs.

The transition from grass and fern to Kohitere Forest, in 23 years, has been remarkable and is a credit to Kohitere and to the boys who have done the hard work.

The Arapaepae Ridge is clothed with forest again.

Arapaepae Rata Firewood

Up to perhaps the 1940s, large dead skeletal rata trees stood starkly on the skyline of the Arapaepae Ridge and could be seen from Levin.

While up there in 1933, Mr Alan Black and I saw a good sized fallen rata and decided to cut it up for firewood for our families. Rata was one of the best burning firewood.

The tree, four feet (1.2m) across, was sawn into four feet (1.2m) cord lengths and split into about eight inch (20cm) thicknesses. There were about four cords cut. A stacked cord is eight feet by four feet by four feet.

The access to the top of the ridge was from the end of McDonald Road, through Mr Read’s property. There was an aerial cableway, with two cables, which in use, the full cradle of wood ran down, pulling the empty cradle up. The cables ran up nearly to the top of the ridge. The anchor of one of the cables had pulled out. Mr Read advised us to get a chain tackle from the Dairy Factory so he could re-anchor the cable.

When we got there he decided against the repair as, in use, any of the other three anchors could pull out.

He advised us to buy a full cwt (about 50kg) and to get the firewood down with it.A half-draught horse was hired from Mr Jack Morgan on the corner of Hokio Beach Road and Bruce Road at 5/- (50c) a day.I took the horse up to McDonald Road and up an easy ridge to the top.The horse was rather reluctant to climb as it was not used to hill work.

A wooden shute existed which the wood slid down to the cableway. A sledge was there and was used to shift the wood ¼ mile (400m) to the shute. After an hour’s sledging, rain developed, and as the sledge was sliding onto the horses legs, it had to be abandoned and the horse taken back.

The next time we went up the weather was fine, the sledging was done, and the wood put down the shute.

The cwt (50kg) of wire was carried around our necks up a short steep ridge. One of us could only carry it about 25 yards (23m) at a time and then handed it to the other. The wire was fastened to the top of a post and then unrolled down a gully. There was about five or six hundred yards in the roll (460 or 550m). The wire was fastened to a post where it ended. At the top, a log was stapled to the wire and let go. The run was very steep with only a black dot visible as the log slid down, taking 10 seconds at an average speed of 80 miles (130km) an hour. A knot was in the wire near the end, which pulled out the staples. The logs flew in all directions up to 50 yards (46m) away. Some bounced over a 20 feet (6m) high ridge and some dug in like fence posts.

A second slow run was necessary to get the wood to where the old 1920ish Gray truck could carry it home. A log hit a fence demolishing it, so that it had to be repaired. The wire was left hanging for the farmer - or to rust. It took a summer to get the wood. Rata was worth about four pound ($8) a cord then. If labour costs had been counted it would have cost ten times that.

With the cost of the wire and horse hire the wood was not that cheap. Contractors had found that out in the past when getting firewood out from difficult situations.

THE NEWS, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1986.