The boats on display at Jellicoe are the beating heart of the festival. The quality and longevity of the craft is an extraordinary testament to two things. The passion with which Kiwis look after their boats and the rot resistance of that gold standard timber, Kauri. Here in Australia we may have developed a rich and broad tapestry of tradition around wooden boats, but in no port on the big island can you walk past restored gaff rigged centenarians, one after the other, for 200 yards.

They trudged home at dusk through the tea-tree scrub with their pikau (a sack-backpack) heavy with gum. On the flats, gum was found two to six feet down; in the swamps, as deep as twelve. Experienced diggers sometimes struck rich veins — but more often, the earth yielded little.

One of the remaining trees was this 700 year old specimen, bought and felled by the late Dick McIlvride whose goal was to build an all-Kauri 47-foot ketch to the plans of the naval architect John Alden.

What I’m personally more interested in is the mentality… the relentless determination.. that drives this group of volunteers to show up every week and chip away at what must at times seem like an infinite task.

After almost 160-years, an ill-fated unique vessel has returned to its final resting place of Mangawhai, NZ. Built from Kauri by a Nova Scotian boat builder in 1863 and used to transport goods along the coast, only eight months later the the 17m schooner was stranded and reported, wrecked.