Tāne Mahuta: God of the Forest - kauri tree

Tāne Mahuta ('Lord of the Forest') is New Zealand's largest known living kauri tree.

It is thought the first encounter of the tree by Westerners was in the 1920s, by contractors surveying the present SH12 through the forest. In 1928, Nicholas Yakas and other bushmen who were building the road, also came across the big tree Tāne Mahuta.

According to Maori mythology Tāne is the son of Ranginui the sky father and Papatuanuku the earth mother. Tāne was the child that tore his parents' parental embrace and once done set about clothing his mother in the forest we have here today. All living creatures of the forest are regarded as Tāne's children.

Measurements

Trunk girth: 13.77 m
Trunk height: 17.68 m
Total height: 51.2 m
Trunk volume: 244.5 m³

Tāne Mahuta, also called "God of the Forest", is a giant kauri tree (Agathis australis) 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.

Tane Mahuta is the largest kauri tree known to be living: 54 metres tall, 16 metres in circumference.

Visit New Zealand's largest known living kauri tree, Tāne Mahuta

This short walk leads you under cooling shade of the forest canopy to the majestic Tāne Mahuta, New Zealand's largest living kauri tree.

Not far into the walk, a sweeping corner of the track suddenly brings you face to face with the 'Lord of the Forest'. When you catch your first breath-taking view of this magnificent tree, you'll feel compelled to pause for a while. You can almost feel Tāne Mahuta's strength and ancient presence, and its overwhelming size makes visitors look like dwarfs.

There is a wooden fence and a seat to view the tree. To get a broader view of Tāne Mahuta, you can move further along the track, which then leads to another viewing platform.

Open times
Open: 8:30 am to 4:30 pm

The gate to the track is locked at night.

Getting there
The Tāne Mahuta Walk is signposted from SH12, which runs through the Waipoua Forest. The southern township of Dargaville is 65 km away and the northern township of Omapere is 18 km.

The road widens at the Tāne Mahuta car park to accommodate visitor vehicles. There is a picnic area, and toilets located 25 m back from the car park on the opposite side of the road from the track entrance.

Tane Mahuta is under threat

In an ancient grove in northern New Zealand, the mighty conifer known as Tane Mahuta, lord of the forest, is threatened by the encroachment of a deadly enemy.

It is the largest kauri tree known to be living: 54 metres tall, 16 metres in circumference.

Kauri, native to New Zealand, are among the world's longest-living trees, and Tane Mahuta has been growing in Waipoua Forest for about 2000 years - longer than New Zealand has been inhabited by humans . It is named after the god of forests in Maori mythology, who is said to have pushed apart the sky father and the earth mother to create space for life to thrive.

But Tane Mahuta stands just 60 metres from another kauri whose roots are infected with an incurable disease. Kauri dieback, caused by a microscopic, fungus-like organism, has reached pandemic proportions and driven an already threatened species closer to extinction. Nearby, five other kauri are also infected.

Given the age and size of kauri, many Maori view them as distant ancestors. Tane Mahuta is particularly special to some, for the connection to the Maori creation story.

" The threat of kauri dieback to the species is a threat to Maori identity itself,'' said Taoho Patuawa, chief science officer for the local Maori tribe, Te Roroa.

That tribe and others are racing to protect the remaining kauri before it's too late.Kauri dieback, discovered in 2006, spreads through the movement of infested soil, often via mud on shoes. Once close to a kauri, the disease's spores infect its roots, causing them to rot. Injecting phosphite can slow the progress of the disease, but there is no cure.

In 2017, the forestry minister at the time, Shane Jones, described the government's kauri dieback response up to that point as " an unmitigated disaster'' . Experts predicted the species, which once covered more than a million hectares, would go extinct within three decades.

Maori researchers, who are often more connected to the communities affected by kauri dieback, have disproportionately been the ones calling for action.

Snow Tane, the general manager of the Te Roroa Development Group, said that around 2015 the tribe began to realise that not only did kauri dieback pose an enormous threat to the forests of New Zealand, but that little help was on the way.

" We could have waited for something to happen, or we could have started the ball rolling ourselves,'' Tane said.

So the tribe stationed kauri ambassadors on tracks and near the forest's entrances to explain to visitors the significance of the trees and ensure nobody strayed too close to them. The tribe had previously worked with the Department of Conservation to install a boardwalk near Tane Mahuta to prevent visitors from spreading infected soil near its roots. In 2018, after camera surveillance showed dozens of people were still evading ambassadors and leaving the track to get closer to its trunk, guardrails went up too.

The election of Jacinda Ardern in 2017 also provided a boost. The new biodiversity minister, Damien O'Connor , pushed through stronger policies on kauri dieback.

Stuart Anderson, the deputy director-general for biosecurity in the Ministry of Primary Industries, said the agency was committed to working with Maori, with half of the $NZ8 million ($7.4 million) it will spend on kauri dieback this year will go directly to Maori groups.

Even these measures, though, seemed insufficient to fight the disease . So the Te Roroa tribe went further, exercising its authority as custodians of Waipoua Forest to close many of its walking tracks entirely . When the government imposed COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, Te Roroa imposed a rahui, or temporary prohibition on entry, over the whole forest.

These restrictions caused controversy . Waipara said that forest managers and scientists he knew had been violently threatened by people who oppose restrictions, or even deny the disease's existence.

Still, monitoring done by Te Roroa indicated that the restrictions were working. Te Roroa was sufficiently satisfied to lift its rahui over Waipoua Forest later in 2020.

Patuawa cautioned that would change if dieback spread closer to Tane Mahuta and other key kauri.

" New Zealand needs to drop the sense of entitlement that we have to be anywhere we want to be,'' he said. " We need to be a little bit more sensitive to these beautiful places.''

But, for now, there's hope that Maori-led interventions have created enough time for scientists to save the kauri. The New York Times

This article by Pete McKenzie is from the March 11, 2022 issue of The Age Digital Edition. To subscribe, visit "https://www.theage.com.au".