Header photographs courtesy of author & photographer Sabine Bernert
 

The Kauri Tree

(Agathis australis)

Commonly called the Southern or New Zealand Kauri, it is a close relation to the Australian Karri (Agathis robusta). The Kauri is a coniferous tree found north of 38 degrees south, in the north of New Zealand’s North Island.

It is not the tallest New Zealand tree, but is the largest by volume.  Mature trees can reach over 50 metres in height, with a diameter of 5 metres and reach above the main forest canopy.  The bark is smooth, bluish-gray and the leaves small and leathery, oval in shape, up to 7cm long and 1 cm broad, but are larger on juvenile trees.

Female cones are globose (rounded), 5-7 cm in diameter, while male rod cones are much smaller and are finger shaped.  After pollination the female cones mature and scales fall away from the central axis when ripe, releasing the winged seeds.  Male and female cones appear on the same tree and pollination can be by pollen from the same tree, or a different tree. The flaking bark of the kauri has its benefit as it defends the tree from parasitic plants, and fallen bark scales accumulate around the base of the tree trunk.  On mature trees it appears that the tree is growing on a mound, but thi sis in fact decayed bark that has been shed over its long lifetime – these mounds can be up to 2 metres high. Kauri have very sensitive shallow feeding roots, so it is important to keep to the broadwalks provided so as not to compact the soil and so threaten the longevity of the trees.

The Destruction of the Kauri Forests

Maori used one large tree trunk to carve out their huge waka taua or war canoes which could hold in excess of 100 warriors.  The trunk of mature trees rise straight and true with very little taper to the upper relatively small canopy and can be more than 18 metres to the first branchces.  European settlers also found that mature trees contained a large volume of timber.  They soon realised the importance of the giant kauri as a resource for building and spars for their ships, the latter due to the straight non-branching trunk.  They also discovered that the tree produced a valuable gum resin, which was exported and used for high grade varnishes and linolium.
The harvest began and when it was over, the kauri forests and the land were decimated.  In the 1800s, kauri timber and gum built Auckland and Whangarei, with both export income and timber for the buildings.  Kauri timber was used in shipbuilding, furniture, carvings and other art forms.  Ships would call in to the northern ports especially to load up with kauri product.  For many years during the latter part of the 1800s, kauri forests provided New Zealand’s major export earnings.  Stripped land was seeded and turned into farmland and soon agriculture overtook the kauri as New Zealand’s main export.

Maori Legend

In the beginning before the world was light, Rangi the sky-father and Papa the earth-mother, were bound together, their offspring trapped in the darkness between them.  Time passed.  The sons became desperate for light and space, so agreed to separate from their parents.  Only Tawhirimatea refrained from trying to break apart the sky and the earth, but all attempts failed.  

Then the strongest among them, Tane Mahuta, put his s houlder to Papa and thrust upwards with his powerful legs, disregarding the protests of a weeping Rangi and Papa, as they were wrenched away from each other’s embrace. Tane Mahuta pushed upwards with all his great strength, until Rangi was forced far away up into the sky, and Tane held him there, letting the light shine in.

The Te Roroa people of Waipoua believe that Tane Mahuta’s legs were the giant trunks of kauri trees.  Because the strong trunks had been able to hold up the sky-father, light came in and life was able to burst forth around the foot of Tane Mahuta’s legs.

Tawhirimatea was very angry with Tane, and followed his father high into the sky, from where he unleashed his own children, the winds, on his brothers on earth.  One brother, Tangaroa, hid in the sea, separating his fish children from Tane Mahuta’s forest children.  Then Tu took revenge on his brothers in the sea and on earth, by eating the fish children and the forest children.

Tane also created the first woman, Hineahuone, and Tu came to represent the humans who inhabited the earth, using the forest and the sea as a food source.  Tane then mated with Hineahuone.

It is thought that the Te Roroa people say that kauri trees link Tane Mahuta’s non-human and human children, signifying the interdependence of all living things. The largest trees in the forest were considered to be chiefs and were accorded the same respect or mana as the chief of a tribe would expect.  Maori believed that the patupaiarehe or fairy people, lived in the tops of the giant kauri trees.  The reason patupaiarehe are not seen any longer is because their homes were attacked by loggers and they fled in terror.