Tane Mahuta, known as God of the Forest is a very tall, very important Kauri tree located in the Waipoua Forest in the Northland of the North Island of New Zealand. It is not known how old this tree is, but experts predict that it is somewhere between 1250 and 2500 years old. Its name comes from the name of a God found in the Maori Pantheon, which was the ancient name for a temple where all the gods lived together.
The tree stands almost 168 feet high, with a girth of 45.18 feet and a trunk height of 58 feet, so it is huge and when you are standing next to it, you can really feel just how small you are.
The tree gets its name from Maori mythology as Tane was the son of the sky father, Ranginui, and the earth mother, Papatuanuku and as the legend goes, he was the child that came between his parents and then clothed his mother in the Waipoua Forest that still stands today. ... continue below the picture...
... All of the living creatures in the forest are considered to be Tane's children.
Although this tree is the oldest and the largest, there are other Kauri tree nearby to this one that are all part of the ancient rainforest that grew in this area. Tane Mahuta is the most famous tree in the whole of New Zealand however and people come from all over just to see it and marvel at how old it is and how long it has been putting down its roots in the exact same place.
Tane Mahuta, God of the Forest, Waipoua Forest, Northland, North Island, New Zealand.
Technical Information:
I photographed this photo with the digital SLR camera model Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, aperture of f/16.0, exposure time of 1/8 sec. on ISO 100, as always I used a original Canon Lens, the focus lenght for this picture was 30mm.