Tane Mahuta
Interesting facts
- Including its crown, the tree's total volume was measured in 2002 at about 517 cubic metres, roughly double that of its trunk alone.
- According to Māori tradition, Tāne forced apart his parents, the sky father Ranginui and the earth mother Papatūānuku, letting light into the world.
- Its neighbour Te Matua Ngahere, 'Father of the Forest', is smaller overall but stouter, with a girth of just over 16 metres.
- In April 2009 Tāne Mahuta was formally twinned with Jōmon Sugi, the ancient cedar on Japan's Yakushima island.
- The Waipoua Forest around it was declared a sanctuary in 1952 to stop logging, and is the largest surviving remnant of northern New Zealand's kauri forests.
- During the 2013 drought about 10,000 litres of stream water were channelled to the tree to save it from dehydration.
Why it is worth it
Deep in the Waipoua Forest on New Zealand's Northland peninsula stands the largest kauri known to be alive. Tāne Mahuta – named after Tāne, the Māori god of forests and birds – is not the tallest tree in the world, but few living things carry such bulk. Its grey, column-like trunk rises almost 18 metres without a single branch and is more than 15 metres around; above it, a crown of twisted limbs spreads out to a total height of about 45 metres. Measurements taken in 2002 put the timber in the trunk alone at some 255 cubic metres.
Nobody knows exactly how old it is. Estimates range from about 1,250 to 2,500 years, which means the seed may have germinated anywhere between the centuries before Christ and the early Middle Ages. The tree is a survivor of the ancient subtropical rainforest that once covered much of the peninsula. It came to wider notice in January 1924, when surveyors marking out the route of what is now State Highway 12 through the forest came upon it. Not far away stands another celebrated giant kauri, Te Matua Ngahere.
The approach is part of the experience: a short, easy path leaves the road and winds through dense bush of ferns and young kauri, until the trunk suddenly appears through the foliage, too large to take in at once. Kauri dieback, a soil-borne disease fatal to the species, has infected trees nearby, and the Department of Conservation has put protective measures in place; visitors clean their footwear at wash stations and keep to the track and viewing platforms. In the dry summer of 2013 water from a nearby stream was even diverted to the tree when it showed signs of stress.
Getting there
The track starts at the Tāne Mahuta car park on State Highway 12 in the Waipoua Forest; Dargaville lies 65 km south and Omapere 18 km north. The nearest larger town is Whangarei, 73.6 km away by straight line, and the nearest airport is Kerikeri Airport (KKE), 51.7 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Tāne Mahuta, also called "God of the Forest", is a giant kauri tree in the Waipoua Forest of Northland Region, New Zealand. Its age is unknown but is estimated to be between 1,250 and 2,500 years. It is the largest living kauri tree known to stand today. It is named after Tāne, the Māori god of forests and of birds.
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
-35.60111, 173.52722per Wikidata