Tāne Mahuta: lord of the forest

But you wait until you’re standing beneath the sacred branches of this behemoth and you’ll be thinking, and feeling, very differently. If you already get what it’s like, we’re preaching to the converted. 

There's something a bit special about standing at the feet of a giant: Tāne, Lord of the Forest. Waipōua Forest. It’s staggering, really.

If you’re feeling your age, try being 1,200 years old, the ‘youngest’ estimate of the age of this tree. This magnificent being may be up to 2,500 years old which is, you know, really getting on, even in tree years.

And while we are not always that keen on stats – and you’re on holiday, after all – with something this humungous, to use a standard arborist’s term, you want to be able to, scale it (though obviously not in a climbing sense). So here goes:

• Trunk girth: 13.77m
• Trunk height: 17.68m
• Total height: 51.5m

Conclusion: it’s big. And still growing. Seriously, this is where we get to properly use the term ‘awesome’. And while Tāne is mightily impressive, he’s got a ‘little’ bro. The nearby ‘Father of the Forest’, Te Matua Ngāhere, is just under 30m tall, with a girth of 16m – still a very impressive sight.

The whole experience is one that inspires awe and wonder, ensuring you’ll get back in your ride a little changed from when you went in. And isn’t that the point of all this seeing of the sights?