Off on Holiday : Now With Pics

[Ianab]

Hi Folks

Lil and I are heading away for a bit of a road trip up to Northland for the next 10 days or so. No computers, cellphone coverage dodgy etc... it will be GREAT.
Will take camera of course as there is plenty of forestry stuff to see. The biggest Kauri tree, sawmill museum and lots of beaches. Might even be a sunny beach if we are really lucky. Heading off in the morning into a heavy rain warning however  :

Will be back around the 8th or 9th ( with heaps of pictures )

Cheers

Ian

http://www.kauri-museum.com/

[Patty]

Have a safe trip!  8)

[sawguy21]

Heading north for a winter holiday? Not something I want to do. Oh yeah I forgot, you have to go north to get warm. Have a good trip.

[Ianab]

OK... a lot of kms travelled, a lot of things seen, a lot of sunburn, a DanG lot of pictures taken.
I hope you like pictures  :D
As I've got photo's that cover every section of the forum I'll just add them ALL on here rather than scattering all over the place.

First off this is where we stayed the 1st few days.


This is the local beach, if you have 4WD you can drive about 30 miles Nth or Sth of here along the beach.
We didn't, so rather than take the chance we just walked a little way.





OK.. off to resize some more pics. Of trees and sawmills and woodwork.. and more beaches  ;D

Ian

[Ianab]

One of the highlights of the trip was the Kauri Museum. There is just HEAPS of exhibits about Kauri trees, sawing them, furniture and stuff made from them, kauri gum, whole sawmills, chainsaws of all sizes....
First section is the old engines.



Most of these engines were in working condition and they were starting them up and running a couple at a time.

This is an old Wade drag saw they have on display.


Some exhibits are bigger than others....
A 1929 Catterpillar 60 dozer. I would guess it's complete and they drove it in there.


This exhibit wasn't fully working  :D


Ian

[Ianab]

Next hall is complete sawmills.  8)
Most were set up and turning over slowly with little electric motors.
The first one seemed to be a steam powered version of the old manual pit saw.

Complete with steam engine.


Next one was a twin blade circle rig for sawing the big kauri logs. Also steam powered.

The bandsaw guys need not feel left out either  ;)

And this one was a NZ made twin sash mill, never seen anything like it before  :



Next section... .Chainsaws  8)

ian

[iain]

lurvley keep em pic's a'comin you aint get time to work 8)




  iain

[Ianab]

Chainsaws  8)

Lil checks out the chainsaw display.

This is an Aussie 2 man Blue Streak saw.






A couple of IEL twin cylinder saws.




A couple of other cool old saws.




This little thing was labeled as a 'Chug-a-saw'. Not sure if that was the model or the description. It was cute though, with about a 12" bar  :D


A Sachs-Dolmar Wankel engine saw.

Also saw this relatively modern rimsaw. Sorry the details on the tag didn't come out readable in the pic, so I dont know much more about it.

Finally this pic was on the wall, showing 2 guys using one of those saws to split a medium size log so it would fit on the mill.


Plenty more to see, but I need to sleep  :

Ian

[WV_hillbilly]

  Looks like you had a fun , relaxing  and interesting vacation lanab . Pretty cool pics you took .

WV hillbilly

[OneWithWood]

Ian, thanks for posting all the pics.  I know it takes a bit of time to do that.

It is always interesting to see how things are done in your corner of the world. :P

[Corley5]

 8) 8) 8) Pics!!  Thanks

[Greenskeeper]

Great pic's, love to see the old steam powered stuff.

[Bro. Noble]

Greenskeeper,

Is that an undermounted Avery?  

Am I reading that right that you live in Hell?  What a forum-----members from 'Down Under',  'Hell',  and 'Texas" :D :D :D

Ianab,
Thanks for the picts,  looking forward to seeing more.  Wish I could have been with you

[Roxie]

Bro. Noble, strong shiney nose has lost it's shine!   :'(
The boss said Whitepe broke it....I hope it get's fixed soon!

Lanab, great pictures!  Thanks!  

[sandmar]

Thanks for the pics lanab! Interesting stuff....get some rest and send more pics. How big is this place anyway?

Sandmar

[Ianab]

Yup... we got more pictures.

Did I mention Lil bought me an extra memory card for my camera for Christmas?? 8)

Centre display in the next hall was a 4inch section sawn from the centre of a large kauri tree.... the WHOLE tree... LENGTHWAYS.  



View looking down from upstairs.
The rings on the wall illustrate some other past and present kauri trees. The outer 2 rings are trees that have been lost to forest fires, the next 4 are trees that are still standing, and there is a slice from the displayed log in the middle, just for scale  


On the back of the log are dozens of photos of the tree being felled and sawn. I've taken snaps of a few of them. The tree was growing on a farm and was killed by a lightning strike so was felled and sawn up.
Felling the tree.

This is the smaller top log being dragged out.

And loaded onto a truck. Not having anything that would lift the logs they dug a hole with the bulldozer, parked the truck in the trench and pushed the log on. This is winching the truck and log out of the trench.

Driving out with the butt log. Caption read something along the line of 'Driver is leaning out door ready to bail out if anything goes wrong'  :D


Some more pics of sawing up the logs.
Loading the big log under the mill.

Turning the log over so they could leave one big slab intact.



The Stump was also dug out and sawn with a chainsaw mill. The wild grain is popular with wood turners.


Coming soon... Some stuff actually made from kauri wood.

Ian

[sandmar]

WOW..would like to see a bowl turned outta that stump.....or at least the lathe to turn it on  

Sandmar

[iain]

It would'nt be a bowl it would be a bath ;)


  iain

[Stump Jumper]

 8) 8) pics
thank you 8)

[Ianab]

Hi Sandmar

How big is this place anyway?

As you can probably tell, it's a big place  
Took us a couple of hours to walk around it all.
As it so happens there is actually a kauri bath on display there :D.. and another place had pictures of a SOLID kauri hot tub they had made from one stump.

But on with the tour...

This staircase is both functional..  and an exhibit.


This is a wooden butter churn from an old dairy factory. The natural durability of the kauri timber made it popular for this sort of use.


This is a small table made from solid figured kauri. A slice of burl is sitting on the table.

Close up of the burl


And some real fancy stuff, lots of inlay, burl and wild grain in this piece.



This table was about the most impressive bit of furniture I've ever seen though.
This table is 15 ft long, 4'6" at one end, 5'6" at the other. The top is about 4 inches thick and weighs over a ton.


The legs of the table and chairs are all finished with Maori carvings and paua shell highlights. Nothing dainty here, it's holding up a ton of table top.

This is the bosses carved chair that goes with the table.

And a closeup of the carving on the chair.


Not finished yet. ;) :D

Ian

[Norm]

Boy this is better than going myself (free) thanks Ian.

[iain]

The pic of you in the mirror,  
you wearing  "jandles" ?



   iain

[Ianab]

A summer holiday in NZ ... Jandles are a must  :D

I decided shorts might be a bit extreme (white chicken legs and all)  :D

[sandmar]

lan...........thanks so much for sharing............these are great pics of beautiful wood...looks like you had a great holiday.

Sandmar
keep the pics coming man,,you got me drooling over this place now.....do they have a website also?

[Fla._Deadheader]

  As usual, a fine job of Journalism. I really appreciate your time to post all the photos and explanations. Thanks to Lil also, for taking some of those photos.

  Looks like y'all had a real good time.  8) 8)

[Ed_K]

 Lanab,  8) pictures. My jaw dropped when I saw that whole tree slabbed length ways, WWWOOOWWW  .

[Furby]

[size=20]    WOW!
WAY COOL![/size]

[chet]

Lanab,
Thank you for taking the time to let us share your vacation.  

[Ianab]

OK... on to the next hall.

This is what a 357 board foot board looks like  :D

How it was done in the REALLY OLD DAYS.
I cant even imagine tackling one of those logs with a hand saw.

Nor could some of the old timers either, so someone splashed out big on a 'portable' steam engine.

Moving logs... originally by Ox cart


Later this changed to bush tramways and the logs were carried on wagons like this.

This is the end of the log, over 1000 growth rings and the chainsaw bar used to fell the tree.



At first glance I wondered what the heck you would use a mallet this big for.... ???

But the photo on the wall explained all  ;D
It was made in 1912 and used through to at least 1936. It could haul a 20 ton log in from up to a mile away.


Up on the wall, the mother of all electric chainsaws, used for splitting the big logs down to fit on the mill.

Closeup of the powerhead.


Ohh.. and as promised.. a kauri bath.  :D




Coming up, Furniture and woodturning sections, and Kauri gum collection (gum and amber)

Check back soon  ;)

Ian

[Ianab]

Some more Kauri furniture.

This bed is part of a display of furnished rooms from around 1900. All made from figured wood.

This is a marquetry wall panel showing a farm / logging scene in various woods. It's about 5 ft long x 2 ft tall.
 

This is a coffee table made from swamp kauri roots that have been buried up to 50,000 years. Cracks are filled with the original gum and plastic resin to make a solid table.

This carving is a Tuatara carved from one solid block of wood. It's about 3 ft tall.


These 3 pics are plates turned from Kauri. Each one is about 18 inches in diameter.
First one is figured wood from the stump.

This one is from Swamp Kauri approx 45,000 old.

This last one had no description, but I'm guessing it's from the stump of a buried log.


I've got more info / pics on the swamp kauri from another place we visited. I'll post those later

Ian

[iain]

Keep em comin jandel boy
we got some real good wind's here at the mo lots of tree's shattered and slamming rain :



    iain

[Ianab]

Last section of the museum is the collection of Kauri gum. This is the resin the oozes (or pours) from any wound in the tree. In the past it was dug out of the swamps or collected from the trees and used to make varnish etc ( I think )
Now it's more just a curiosity or made into jewellery etc.

They have a decent collection...


Some of the lumps have insects caught in them as the gum set.

Or spiders...

OR even a lizard.


This is a solid lump of gum collected from the top of a dead tree. Total weight 145 lbs


and of course some people have far too much time on their hands.. and have to make things from it. :

Or even a LIFE SIZE bust of a local Maori chief !

[Ianab]

2 last pics from the Kauri Musuem.
This is an old steam powered winch that sits on the front lawn at the moment.


Ohh.. and of course an actually real Kauri tree as well.
This is growing outside the front door of the museum and was planted in 1965. They aren't actually a slow growing tree.



next pics, Waipou forest where the biggest surviving kauri trees are growing.

Ian

[Fla._Deadheader]

  That was a great tour. Thanks again, Lan.  8)

[SwampDonkey]

 8) 8) Most amazing museum I've ever seen on the history of a tree. Must be the most celebrated tree in NZ. Thanks for talking the time to share the experience.

cheers

[Ianab]

OK, That was day one...
Day 2 we went to Lil's cousins wedding ( actually the main reason for going to Northland ) ... a good day was had by all, but nothing to do with trees.
Day 3 we went up the coast to Waipoua forest which is the biggest area of Kauri forest left. I guess about 95% of the original forest was clearcut and converted to farmland. Fortunately they stopped just before they ran out of trees and left some decent areas in protected reserves. The trees are not rare or endangered, but are no longer milled on a commercial scale.
This is a view out over the forest.

From the banks of a river in the forest


The main attraction in the forest is a tree called Tane Mahuta ( God of the Forest in Maori  ).
It's the sort of tree you have to take 2 pictures of to fit it all in  


You cant actually get close to the tree as it's fenced off to prevent damage from the thousands of visitors that would stomp all over the root system over time. So it's hard to get the true scale in a picture.
The tree has a dbh of 4.4 metres! and is 17.7m to the first branch. Put those numbers into the ole log scale calculator  ;D

Testing out the zoom lens on the parrots living in the top of the tree  


As we couldn't get up close and personal with the biggest tree we stopped on the roadside to check out some 'baby' ones up close.

Yes, thats Lil giving the tree a hug  






Next stop. The Ancient Kauri Kingdom, basically a shop selling stuff made from recovered kauri logs that have been buried for up to 50,000 years.

Ian

[redpowerd]

awesome awesome stuff, unreal.
thanks for the road trip.
this is an archive.
its been a good christmas present.

[OneWithWood]

I hope you stood that tree up after Lil pushed it over

[LIL]

 :D

HEY! I wasn't pushing it over - just trying to get it into the back of the car :D

Im sure it would look better at our place  ;)

[Ianab]

Next day we moved to another beach, Lil's cousin had use of a holiday house at this place.

Very sorry if you are snowed in at your place ... I really am  :D

From there we did a few day trips to other places.

The Ancient Kauri Kingdom is a shop selling stuff made from Swamp Kauri, dug up from peat swamps in the area. Some of the wood is up to 50,000 years old.
When you walk in you see this log sitting in the middle of the shop.

It's the staircase to the mezzanine floor.

Picture from the top.

And with yours truely.

Now.. this staircase is carved out of one solid lump of wood thats about 45,000 years old and weighed 50 tons!  
The log has 1087 growth rings in it!

The place is set up with lots of interesting stuff for sale ( that we couldn't afford ) and lots of pictures of log recovery and past projects.

Guess what they use to break down those big logs.


Yup.. good ole hi-tech chainsaw mill  ;)

I mentioned before about a Kauri hot tub... hows this one?


It ended up in Japan hooked up to the natural hot springs near Hiroshima.


This picture showed a 7 cubic meter burl they found on one log.


How about a free form bench seat made from 30,000 year old wood? The price tag was about 1/2 what my house is worth  


This was Lil's favourite, a coffee table with a resin rockpool set in the top.


I liked the plainer one better.

As we couldn't agree we left them both there are $2000 richer than we might have been  :D ;)

Some very nice dining tables as well.

Detail of the 'rockpool' in the centre of the table.


And this one with a river motif set in the top.

Detail of the resin inlay.


Nows thats some cool ideas for table tops...

AND...
Out back there is the DIY department, where you can buy timber, slabs and rough finished stuff. That was more my price range, kinda expensive but not stupidly so. Coffee table sized slabs starting about $250. I remembered how many cypress and cedar slabs I've got in the shed already and resisted temptation... this time .




Must be getting through the pictures now  ;)

Almost done

Ian

[Captain]

Holy digital camera capacity, Ian!!  What a vacation!!

Captain

[Furby]

I say again [size=20]WOW![/size]

Ya know I think that if I had it, I'd gladly be paying the asking price on a lot of that stuff. ;)

[iain]

You know i think your doing good with lil she seems very understanding and tolerant of your needs both as a man and a sawyer ;) 8)




unless of course you did lots of girlie type shopping that you aint showing us :


   iain

[Ianab]

I'll finish off this little photo marathon with some pictures, literally from the end of the road. If you follow State Highway One all the way north.. it just stops in the middle of nowhere. Then there's 20 kms of gravel track, I guess they dont want to call it SH1 any more because then they would have to seal it  ;)

Anyway it goes North to Cape Reinga. It's not the northernmost point in NZ, but it's as far as you can drive a car.
It is worth the trip though.  8)

Looking West to Cape Maria Van Diemen



Looking East to Spirit Bay and North Cape



Looking North, over Cape Reinga and .. not much untill you get to Hawaii

Here's a FF hat a LONG way from home



Hope you enjoyed this little tour,  we sure as heck did  ;D

Ian & Lil

PS.. this is the beach a couple of kms from the Cape. We stopped there for a swim on the way back.

[Ianab]

hehe Iain

Lil is a keeper  ;)

We did buy a couple of little things on the trip. After looking at heaps of beautiful things we couldn't afford.. and ugly /  tacky things we could or couldn't, Lil finally let slip... 'thats nice'.
It was just a plain little clock...

but it's still neat to have a little piece of history on the desk.



ian

[iain]

I get the feeling of tolerance, and indulgence from the front, and "oh goodie we've stopped to look at another tree well thats unusual" from the boys on the back seat. when we're out and about.
But at the same time Linda would like a section of the work shop "to make things" i think she's finally corrupted ;)


 iain

[LIL]

 ;)
I feel the need to post again in reply to Iain's "unless of course you did lots of girlie type shopping that you aint showing us  
 
 
   iain "

There was no girlie type shopping done - as LIL isn't of the girlie type girls! ;D.  But given a chance to go back to the Kauri Kingdom - im sure I could be persuaded  :D

[iain]

 ;D ;D


 iain

[old3dogg]

Thanks LIL and Lanab.That was a really cool vacation.

[Tom]

LIL
The Kauri Kingdom looks like my kind of place.  I seek these rustic furniture artists out where ever I go.   That place would have kept me occupied for a long time. ;D

http://www.ancientkauri.co.nz/

[LIL]

Tom - If I had the chequebook to go along with it - im sure it would have kept me busy a long time also!!!  But alas back to the children I return next week! Guess I have to think about seriously saving! That or getting Ian onto those slabs in the shed - between his workshop and sawmill there just never seems to be enough time!!!! (Being number one offloader and almost photographer - I know these things) But anyways we have the photos and memories.

I never really looked at "wood" in this light - it has a whole new meaning for me now!

Im sure if you retraced Ian and my footsteps - the whole trip would have kept you busy!  
 

[Larry]

Thanks for taking the time to give us a tour Lil and Ian.

Kauri trees must be very special as it is the first tree featured in the book Remarkable Trees of The World.

[Tom]

I like the idea of your delving into the shed for the slabs better than wishing for a fat checkbook. ;D

You never know.  You guys might run that furniture business a close race with rustic table tops.  It sure would be a way to fill your house with beautiful slab tables and the like.

As Number One Off-Bearer, you get first choice. ;D 8)