Minginui is a remote town on the edge of Whirinaki Te Pua-a-Tāne Conservation Park. It started as a logging and milling town focusing on extracting native timber and then replacing the trees with faster-growing exotic pines. Most of the area from Te Whaiti to the town, within the Whirinaki River Valley and bounded by the hills to the east and west, was clear-felled and converted to farmland. A typical NZ story.
Fortunately, a large part of Whirinaki Forest survived this activity. By the 1970s, the conservation movement had enough grunt to mobilise significantly to stop further selective logging of forest ancients at Whirinaki and elsewhere around the North Island. In one significant incident in 1978, four busloads of conservationists arrived in Minginui after a conference in Taupō. This led to a confrontation with locals who refused to give them access to the forest. But the writing was on the wall, and native tree milling was done for. With its strict conservation mandate, DOC took over the park from the NZ Forest Service, and Minginui declined.
Then, things began to improve. In 2010, Ngāti Whare settled its Treaty of Waitangi grievances with the NZ government and gained joint management rights over the forest with DOC.
More recently, the Provincial Growth Fund funded a project established and managed by Ngāti Whare Holdings to accelerate the goal of removing the exotic pines and converting the land back to native forest. As you drive through the town, you will see enormous numbers of seedlings of all kinds in the Minginui Nursery alongside the road, maybe the most significant activity of its kind in Aotearoa, with over 1 million baby trees ready for planting!
Also, watch out for the horses as you drive through the town. They have free rein!
