We recently went to Arataki Visitors centre in the Waitakeres.
When we got there we had to spray our shoes to protect the Kauri trees from disease.
We split into groups and one group went on the nature trail first. We heard lots of birds but we didn't see many. Long ago it used to be a potato farm before it was a forest.
We saw Rimu trees and years ago, the leaves were used as hair combs.
Birds eat the berries and then poop out the seeds which then grow into more trees. "I think its very good because when trees get broken down they get replaced with a new tree". (Ella M)
"If the seeds that the birds poop out, if they are on top of eachother the seed on the bottom will push the other one out." (Ida)
We made a forest with our bodies. "Canopy is the top trees and it blocks some sun." (Ella R)
The sub canopy is made of plants like ferns.
"Plants need light to grow so they need space." (Josh)
Then comes the shrubs and ground cover.
The giant Kauri is the king of the forest. The biggest Kauri tree there is 600 years old but they can live for 2000 years!
"We learnt how old a baby tree is. A baby Kauri is 15-20 years old." (Lily).
"When Nikau palms are babies they look like grass but they're not." (George)
One tree we stopped to look at was the Tea Tree, known as Manuka. Captain Cook used to make tea out of the leaves when he came here.
There were a lot of spider webs in the forest and some were made by sheet spiders. Their webs were flat like a sheet of paper.
We learnt about when the trees die bugs and insects eat into them and make air gaps. The wood gets crumbly (decomposes) and ends up on the forest floor, becoming part of the soil. This soil feeds the new trees growing so it is recycled.
