LIFESTYLER
June 4 2013
Kaipara
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Kauri giants emerge from past by Rose Rees-Owen
Two fallen kauri trees, giants that rival Tane Mahuta in size, have been unearthed from a Tangowahine farm after lying buried for a millennia.
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Landowner Milan Radich estimates the larger of the two logs is around 13.5 metres long with a diameter of 3.5 metres. “These are the biggest I have found out of several uncovered over the years.” Tane Mahuta’s trunk height is 17.8 metres with a diameter of 4.9 metres, according to the New Zealand Tree Register. “During the drought it was easier to tell where the logs were buried, a metre below the surface, as the grass was partially dead on top,” said Mr Radich. He, along with Kaihu Kauri mill and gallery owner, Nelson Parker, and Brian Solly, from Wahui Quarries, extracted the logs using two diggers and a bulldozer. Mr Parker says the logs will be processed at the Kaihu Kauri mill and put on display. Associate Professor of the University of Waikato, Alan Hogg, and his team visited Milan’s farm to examine the logs for research on past climate changes. Because kauri can live for around 2,000 years, they are unique in providing accurate evidence for past climates over long periods. Prof. Hogg is currently focusing on the Younger Dryas period, 13,000 to 11,000 years ago, when parts of the northern hemisphere experienced a sudden drop in temperature. “The samples indicate that the kauris died around 1,900 years ago and although not relevant to the current focus, are nevertheless useful
Standing on top of an unearthed giant kauri from left: Alan Crawford who owns a farm where Younger Dryas kauri have been found, with Milan Radich and his granddaughter, Lydia Hill
for compiling a timeline of changes in climate going back millennia,” he said, adding that he determines the amount of carbon 14 in the atmosphere over the tree’s lifespan. “The levels in each tree ring vary because of two factors — output of the sun, and the levels of carbon in reservoirs such as oceans, soil and vegetation.” The larger of the two trees dug up was rotten inside, making it difficult to determine the longevity of the kauri, but he estimates it was “at least 1,000 years old.”
It’s not the first time a huge log has been discovered in Tangowahine. In the late 1950s Leo Glamuzina and his team extracted a similar sized kauri on the farm previously owned by Don Millstead. Milan remembers a television crew from America filming it when he was young — his first experience of television. “I asked the crew what that big square box was and it was a camera.” The experience heightened his interest in swamp kauri and he says there are plenty more around Kaipara waiting to be discovered. ■
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