Tāne Mahuta

New Zealand’s Tāne Mahuta (also lord/god of the forest) is a huge kauri (Agathis australis) in the Northland region’s c.2,500-year-old Waipoua Forest. Standing around 50m high with a trunk diameter of 4.5m, it is the largest known living kauri, attracting 200,000 visitors annually.

Discovered in 1924 and thought to be  around 1,500 years old, Tāne Mahuta is named after Tāne, the god of forests and birds in Māori mythology.

‘Tāne’ has survived numerous threats including a 2013 drought when 10,000 litres of stream water was diverted to Waipoua Forest. In 2018 a spread of kauri dieback led NZ’s Dept of Conservation to implement a robust protection plan.

More recently the walking track to Tāne Mahuta reopened in December 2024 after three months, following various upgrades.

Kauri (also kauri pine or southern/NZ kauri) is a conifer from far northern NZ that can grow 50m tall and 5m wide. It has wide, flat, leathery leaves and a thick blueish bark that sheds easily, creating acidic litter that’s hostile to parasitic plant growth and makes clay soil release nutrients.

The genus name Agathis derives from Greek for ‘ball of twine’, a nod to the shape of kauri’s pollen-producing male cones. Its seed-producing female cones look totally different.

Kauri gum (or resin) is valued for its utility, often used locally in jewellery, varnish, chewing gum, tattoo pigment and to start fires.

The second-largest living kauri is Te Matua Ngahene, which is also in Waipoua Forest and whose name means ‘father of the forest’.

Kauri’s genus, Agathis, is one of only three making up the family Araucariaceae, along with Araucaria (e.g. monkey puzzle) and Wollemia (Wollemi pine only, which is botanically not a pine).

Image (L) by W. Bulach, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0; image (R) by Szilas, own work

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