Thread: Forest Giants

Came across these 2 last week , a Rimu and a Totara with barely a metre gap between them.

Was on the top of the Hauhungaroas a few years back, wondering why it was so dark all of a sudden in the bush we were walking through. Realised I was walking through the rotted out trunk of I think a totara, covered in moss lichen and fern. This thing was all of 2.5m diameter lying on it's side, with dirt flat across the bottom - basically an open-topped tunnel. Would probably have been 3.5m diameter standing up?

I dunno how long it would take for a tree to get that diameter, but I can tell you it's been on the ground a LOT longer than I've been alive...

Bloody big trees!! Nice bit of timber in that rifle stock too!

Cruising around in the northern kaimais and struck a cliff face, it was actually a giant kauri.

Awesome... It kind of sits you back on your bum when you work out that the giant thing in front of you is alive or was alive.

we had two huge totara cut and illegally logged out from the lower Patea dam - estimated $30,00 dollars worth - despite best efforts could not get leads locals went quiet despite it would have needed their barge to get the timber out lol

Timber like that is seriously impressive and hard to beat.
I spent a year in Whangarei as a first year apprentice and went to see Tane Mahuta, this was 2006 and I took my kids to see it as well when they came up to stay, that in itself is a serious Kauri, my flatmate whom owned the house said there were bigger trees in some forests than Tane Mahuta but DOC or other 'protective' parties weren't making those locations known. I believe that given ole mate's profession and I'm still in touch with him to this day.

bigger kauris no sorry rumour and I worked for DOC Kaitaia for five years -that is rubbish -and dont forget they can be easily seen from the air - yes there were a lot bigger kauris and substantially bigger kauris logged than Tane Mahuta now long gone - but living no Tane Mahuta is the biggest -

Big trees are pretty humbling, be neat to know the age of some you stumble into .

Some very big totaras here in Geraldine. Thousands of years old. Look at some of the old logging photos,bulldozers on TOP of log segments. I recall good friend Reg D driving out of kaitieki with a single log on his unit...and he was way over weight. That was small tree compared to what went out in earlier years.

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

bigger kauris no sorry rumour and I worked for DOC Kaitaia for five years -that is rubbish -and dont forget they can be easily seen from the air - yes there were a lot bigger kauris and substantially bigger kauris logged than Tane Mahuta now long gone - but living no Tane Mahuta is the biggest -

Yeah, Tane Mahuta isn't the tallest Kauri but as far as I'm aware it's the oldest and I think the biggest diameter one left standing. Impressive tree!

Originally Posted by SmokeyJason

Cruising around in the northern kaimais and struck a cliff face, it was actually a giant kauri.

Bushbashing in the Waitakere Ranges west of Auckland I spotted a huge cliff face too, and it turned out to be a huge kauri. From one side it would be the widest kauri ever, and I've spent a lot of time in Waipoua and Coromandel measuring kauri trees, but from a 90 degree position it was shaped like the bow of a ship, taper and all!

Originally Posted by No.3

Yeah, Tane Mahuta isn't the tallest Kauri but as far as I'm aware it's the oldest and I think the biggest diameter one left standing. Impressive tree!

Found one in Waipoua, the Yakas tree, that from memory is bigger in diameter than Tane Mahuta.

I heard about this massive rata in the Abel Tasman and bush-bashed in there with a mate to have a look.
It would have started life as a seedling way up in the crown of another tree. It grew roots like vines down the host trees' trunk, eventually reaching the ground. A few hundred years later the host tree died and the rata became self supporting on it's scaffold-like roots. Now the host tree has long since rotted away you can see a gap in the rata root "trunk".
This rata would've had no value to loggers and it somehow escaped the burnoffs when the area was farmed.
Base of the tree was covered in kiekie all around so I couldn't photograph it. Higher up it was supporting good sized broadleaf trees and huge clumps of astelia.

The 10 largest living kauri
Kauri are among the largest and longest-living trees in the world. This table shows the size of the 10 largest living kauri in 1986. Most of them are in Northland forest, with two (Tānenui and Tairua) on the Coromandel[ATTACH]261849[/ATTAC

here ya go hope it comes out[ATTACH]261849[/ATTAC

nah I give up it was a list of the top 10 Kauri