Qualla: Pureora Forest Park

Pureora Forest Park: Introduction

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit M.Bitton, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the late 1970s, conservationist Stephen King climbed a tree in a forest that was scheduled to die. He and fellow activist Shirley Guildford built platforms high in the canopy and refused to come down, blocking the logging crews below from cutting the podocarps that had been growing here since before the Norman Conquest. Their protest worked. Pureora Forest Park was established in 1978, the New Zealand government permanently banned logging operations in the area, and the Native Forest Restoration Trust was formed to ensure the park's future. Today, Pureora is recognized as one of the finest rainforests in the world, and the treetop platforms from that pivotal protest are still standing.

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Image: M.Bitton | CC BY-SA 4.0

Pureora Forest Park: Giants of the Canopy

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kahuroa, Public domain. What the protesters saved is extraordinary. Pureora shelters some of the largest intact tracts of native forest remaining in the North Island, and its trees are ancient. Thousand-year-old podocarps rise from the understory of tawa and tree ferns: rimu, kahikatea, matai, miro, and...

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Image: Kahuroa | Public domain

Pureora Forest Park: Buried in Ash

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geoff McKay from Palmerston North, New Zealand, CC BY 2.0. Pureora holds a secret beneath its living forest. In 1983, a subfossil forest was discovered within the park, trees buried and preserved by a volcanic eruption nearly 2,000 years ago. The trunks of tanekaha lie in rows, felled in the same direction by the blast, their alignment s...

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Image: Geoff McKay from Palmerston North, New Zealand | CC BY 2.0

Pureora Forest Park: Birdsong Returned

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit S.E. Thorpe, Public domain. The park's conservation value extends well beyond its trees. Pureora is one of the last strongholds of the North Island kokako, a rare songbird whose haunting, organ-like call once defined New Zealand's forests and has been disappearing from them for decades. Kaka, kakkariki, and...

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Image: S.E. Thorpe | Public domain

Pureora Forest Park: Trails Through Time

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Johnragla, CC0. Pureora sits between Lake Taupo and Te Kuiti, bounded by the Rangitoto and Hauhungaroa Ranges, mostly in the Waikato region with its southern reaches extending into Manawatu-Whanganui. Its peaks include Mount Pureora at 1,165 metres and Mount Titiraupenga at 1,042 metres. The Tim...

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Image: Johnragla | CC0