Kohumaru Station - Tai Tokerau Province, Aotearoa/NZ
Do excuse the Japanese logging company's ugly scar on this landscape.
"Thank goodness they are now out of here. Now to get our land back and plant native trees" says Eric. For many years, successive NZ Governments have allowed foreign forestry companies to acquire long term forestry leases on what have been, (and still remain), as customary tribal lands dating back more than 1,000 years. The original "Kohumaru Survey Block" covered an area of circa 12,000 acres but over the years, Government mismanagement and wrongful alienation of tribal land, mostly to Asian owned forestry companies has seen this huge colonial era block reduced to the remaining 2,334 acres that forms today's Kohumaru Station.
Getting Kohumaru Station ready to produce.
Even a hip issue doesn't stop Eric
This image taken on a wet, late winter's day shows Eric inspecting a site on Tipatipa Rd where a harvesting support facility is to be built. Oh by the way, Eric has had his op and while not exactly running around the Station like he did 40 years ago putting in the fence lines, he still puts in the mahi needed to prep the Station for the full scale harvesting which will commence once the Series A Round closes.
Entering Kohumaru through the southern entrance
This image was taken at the southern end of Kohumaru Station where Eric is inviting a party in for a "station tour". This image shows just how dense the tee tree bushland is on Kohumaru. Once harvesting gets under way, many of the older trees will have the foliage removed for oil extraction and then be removed with replanting into rows for mechanized harvesting to follow.
The tea tree is everywhere
This image shows the metaled road that winds through the Station with dense NZ tee tree bushes on both sides of the road. As the harvesting clears out much of the old regrowth taonga, the replanting program will apply customary tikanga protocols, ensuring no heavy density stem per ha planting. This practice ensuring rapid plant growth that will support both honey and oil production requirements without compromising the environment or plant genetics.