Tane Mahuta

Heading south now, towards Auckland, we are only a short distance from the Wiapoua Forest, which is home to about three quarters of New Zealand's remaining mature kauri trees, including Tane Mahuta, the largest and oldest living kauri tree.  The name means Lord of the Forest, and the tree is estimated to be up to 2,500 years old.  It is 168 feet tall, and the trunk has a girth of just over 45 feet.

Kauri wood has some amazing characteristics - no knots, a beautiful color and grain, and it doesn't rot.  It's no longer legal to harvest kauri trees, so they dig up old tree trunks and recycle old buildings that were once made of kauri, and use the wood for high-end furniture and artworks.   Ancient tree trunks as much as 50,000 years old have been found in peat bogs, and their wood is perfectly preserved.