Waipoua Forest - Yakas Kauri - The Four Sisters - Te Matua Ngahere

From the car park on SH 12 a 10 minute walk on a track suitable for wheelchairs takes you to the Four Sisters - 4 trees growing very close together. A 20 minute walk will take you to Te Matua Ngahere, the second largest living kauri tree and father of the forest.
A 30- 40 min (one way) diversion to the south on the Yakas track reaches the 7th largest kauri tree in the Waipoua Forest - it’s the largest tree in Cathedral Grove,
If you continue on the Yakas track (6 km) rather than return to SH 12 you will reach the Waipoua Forest Visitor Centre.

The Waipoua forest was acquired by the government in 1874 and became a state forest. In the 1940s there were plans to mill the kauri trees. A conservation battle ensued and in 1952, following a petition to Parliament containing 70,000 signatures, in a campaign instigated by Zoology professor Roy McGregor, it became a sanctuary.