Forestry in New Zealand
Wairarapa Forestry
Overview | Gisborne Forestry | Hawkes
Bay Forestry | Wairarapa
Forestry | New Zealand Institute of Forestry | Wood
Processing Strategy | New
Zealand Facts and Figures 
Forest Enterprises has 40 forests consisting of 9,615 hectares in the Wairarapa region.
The Wairarapa region is situated in the south-east of New Zealand's North Island. It is a region well-known for its agriculture, viticulture, horticulture and forestry. The region is close to Wellington, New Zealand's capital city, and there are excellent rail links between the Wairarapa and Wellington's major port.
The Wairarapa meets all Forest Enterprises criteria for afforestation - good growth rates, land of medium contour and an extensive forestry infrastructure.
An aerial view of the Juken Nissho mill on the outskirts of Masterton.
On the Masterton boundary is the large Juken Nissho sawmill and laminated veneer lumber plant plus a chipping facility. There is also a new sawmill specialising in unpruned sawlogs.
Juken Nissho came to the area in 1991 when they purchased the cutting rights to the 11,000 hectare Ngaumu Forest. Early in 1992 they commenced production at a purpose built $40 million high tech sawmill and laminated veneer lumber plant. Since construction, the mill has been extended a number of times, and Juken Nissho’s total investment in the area now exceeds $100 million. This mill will provide a major end user for the high quality clearwood timber that will be produced from our Wairarapa forests.
A ship being loaded with logs at the Port of Wellington.
Major log export facilities exist at the Port of Wellington, which is only 90 kms by rail and 100 kms by road, from Masterton. Significant volumes of logs are being handled through this port and increased volumes are projected. In the year to June 2000, the port handled over 100,000 tonnes of log exports.
A log marshalling facility at the Masterton rail yard has offered the opportunity to rail freight logs direct to the port in the past. This facility will operate again as the log volume comimg from the Wairarapa increases.
Logs destined for Wellington being loaded onto railway wagons at the Masterton railhead during 2001.
You can find out more about Wairarapa at www.wairarapa.gen.nz and about forestry in the Wairarapa here.
Information on the opportunity for Wairarapa to be involved in the wood processing industry can be found in the PDF file below.
Wairarapa Forestry (773KB)
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