Kōrero: Waikato region

Waikato’s vegetation was markedly changed by Pākehā. The forest, fernland and swamp vegetation of the mid-19th century has been almost completely removed, and Waikato is now dominated by exotic pasture. Extensive indigenous forest is now found mainly on ranges and mountains. In the south-east of the region there are exotic forests first planted in the 1920s and 1930s, near a much larger tract of plantation forest on the Volcanic Plateau between Rotorua and Taupō.