Inside the huge kauri tourist attraction in Northland

Thursday, 6 February 2025

Walking through the gallery at Kā Uri in Northland’s Awanui, a giant log smacks you in the face.

Not literally, thankfully, but, at 5.1 metres tall and 11.3 metres in girth, the impressive trunk in the middle of the room is hard to miss. From the front, it looks like a beautiful but ginormous piece of kauri but walk around the back and a staircase is carved right out of the tree trunk, like something from a fairytale.

The kauri tree had stood for 1087 years before it fell, lying preserved in a swamp for 45,000 to 50,000 years.

Northland local Dave Stewart and his crew extracted the log in October 1994 from a local farm. It weighed an estimated 140 tonnes, which is about 20 times heavier than an elephant and about as heavy as the Statue of Liberty without its base.

The crew first tried to pull the tree out in one piece but it snapped two winch ropes and broke two shackles. A 30-tonne piece was cut off and the heavier, 110-tonne section was taken out first.

It is the largest swamp kauri log known to have been extracted and is now thought to be the only staircase carved out of a tree in the world.

In September 1998, a 50-tonne section was cut from the huge log and taken to what was then the Ancient Kauri Kingdom. It took 300 hours to chainsaw out the stairs and another 200 extra hours for it to be finished.

It was then stood up and the building, now Kā Uri, was built over and around it.

The gallery and café is the perfect place to stop before a visit to Cape Reinga so you can learn about the spiritual nature of New Zealand’s most northern point.

The writer visited Kā Uri with support from Northland Inc.