Puketi Forest is home to many unique and magnificent New Zealand native trees including tawa, rimu, kahikatea and totara, as well as one of Northland's great treasures, the majestic kauri tree.

The Puketi forest reserve comprises of 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) and some 365 different species of trees and plants are recorded here, some of which are found nowhere else in the world.

The forest once supported numerous and diverse birdlife, but introduced pests have sadly reduced these.

The bush walk is easy, along a well constructed boardwalk (about a 5 minute walk) to a central viewing platform where there stood a magnificent kauri approx 600 years old.

There were also stands of other mature kauri aged between 150 and 300 years old and it was truly a stunning sight to see five or six of these large kauri trees so close together.

It is an amazing feeling to stand next to something that is this old, this huge and still growing!

The kauri in this reserve are no where near the size of the majestic Tane Mahuta, but are an awesome sight none the less.