Forest giants

Tāne Mahuta (on the left) is called the ‘God of the forest’. Aotearoa New Zealand’s oldest living kauri tree is 51.5 metres tall and its trunk is 4.5 metres in diameter. It lives in the Waipoua Forest in Northland.

This majestic samaúma tree reaches 70 metres in height and towers over the other trees in the rainforest. It has huge buttress roots that are taller than an adult.

Tāne Mahuta image by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the majestic samaúma © Joseph Michael.