Treasures of the deep in the Far North

By COLIN MOORE

European castles and Egyptian pyramids have nothing on the antiquity of one of the Far North's most successful tourist operations. The star attractions at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom at Awanui have been carbon dated at up to 50,000 years old. The giant primeval kauri trees have emerged from a modern swamp in condition as good as when some unexplained cataclysm felled them. Even leaves, cones and bark have been preserved.

Dug up, milled and crafted into anything from egg cups to high-priced furniture sculpted with a chainsaw, swamp kauri is a distinctive Northland product. But David and Bev Stewart have also turned their Awanui headquarters into a tourism award winner.

You can't miss it. Huge logs and the gnarled stumps of forest giants are stacked in the yard, waiting to be milled.

All have come from farmland within 10 minutes' drive of Awanui. A telltale mound in a cow paddock will alert an experienced eye that something lies deeply buried beneath the swampy ground. Then large earthmoving machinery digs out the old log and brings it to the surface.

The centrepiece at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom provides a real-life illustration of what is involved. It is a 50 tonne section of a 140-tonne giant that Dave unearthed in 1994.

The log, aged between 45,000 and 50,000 years, was so big that a 30-tonne section had to be cut off before the machinery had any chance of freeing it from the swamp. Even then, two winch ropes, each with a breaking strain of 90 tonnes, barely managed. Two shackles with 60cm diameter pins were pulled apart.

The log, estimated to have grown for 1000 years, was the biggest Dave had found and he was reluctant to mill it. Instead, he took a chainsaw to a section that is 11.3m in girth, 3.5m in diameter and 5.1m high, carving a spiral staircase inside it.

Then he stood it up in his Awanui showroom to give the public novel access to an upperfloor gallery.

You couldn't put a price on that piece of ancient kauri, but the showroom is filled with thousands of other items that have been priced. There is a huge and magnificent sofa carved from a single stump selling for $35,000. A similarly priced item was snapped up by an overseas buyer.

More modestly priced examples of work in the richly coloured timber include a vanity unit for $4800, a pate board for $10 or a plastic bag holder for $5.50. Every item cries out that the wood is still living - as vibrant as the day it went into a swamp 50,000 years ago.

Ancient Kauri Kingdom, State Highway 1, Awanui, ph (09) 406 7172, e-mail Ancient Kauri Kingdom or visit Ancient Kauri.