Local Classical Tone Wood from New Zealand (Back and Sides - Soundboard???)

[fsalmassi]

Hello there. My first post here...

I'll be traveling to the north island of New Zealand in late January of 2025 and would love to bring home some local tone wood as a souvenir. I am mainly interested in woods for classical (acoustic) guitar, and it's really important that it be wood that grow locally in the area. Are there any species and/or suppliers that you can recommend for a hobbyist luthier? Any information would be appreciated.

Many thanks!
Foho

[kiwigeo]

This might help: https://rarefindtimber.rocketspark.co.nz/

[fsalmassi]

This might help: https://rarefindtimber.rocketspark.co.nz/

Thank you Martin. It looks like there are several local woods such as Tanekaha or Taraire. The spalted Taraire looks very interesting.

[hepikohetaniwha]

Kahikatea is the best option for a soundboard

[Andos]

Sorry, the reply is a bit late but “You’ll be back!”
Tops
Kaihikatea, as already mentioned
Mangeao, kauri, matai
Mangeao is my preferred.
Back & sides
Rewarewa, any of the maires, tairere, tawa, puriri, pohutakawa, rata, rimu
Necks
Tairere, tawa

Finding it is the hard part and some of the woods can only be exported as a finished product.
Rarefied is the only commercial seller of guitar woods that I know of but they are expensive.
Check around for the local small sawmillers and be prepared to do a lot of driving. They often have wee gems hidden away, but they usually come as slabs or planks and don’t resaw down to guitar thicknesses,
Pohutakawa starts as a lovely soft pink and puriri a deep green but both fade to brown. If you don’t get a finish on pohutakawa fairy quickly it goes grey, as does black maire if left under light.
Rimu is probably the most stable but least acoustic. I’ve heard good reports about rewarewa but I’ve never had a large enough piece to make a body from.
This is just my opinion as a very amateur luthier. Im sure there are plenty of others who would argue otherwise on some of the points above.

[Andos]

And a pohutakawa small body archtop.

[Andos]

Damn predictive txt.
Archtop not arthropods
I don't even know what an arthropod!