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| Contact us at info@rangatira-charters.co.nz Tel: +64 21 911500 |
Rangatira is constructed from full length planks of Kauri wood. Kauri is New largest and
most famous native tree.
Kauri is a type of conifer or pine tree which grows in the sub tropical northern part of
the North Island. Ancestors of the Kauri first appeared in the Jurassic period 109 -135
million years ago. The Kauri podocarp (pine bearing) hardwood forests are among the
most ancient in the world.
Kauri are among the worlds mightiest trees, growing to more than 50 metres tall, with
trunk girths of up to 16 metres. They covered much of the top half of the North Island
when the first people arrived in New Zealand around 1,000 years ago.
The wood produced from Kauri is one of the worlds great timbers, long wide planks of
faultless, superb timber were cut from the mighty trunks. Kauri is very hard wearing
and resistant to rot, a piece of Kauri wood taken from a gum field near Whangarei has
been shown by carbon dating to be 34,000 years old.
The timber was used for many purposes, ship building, masts and spars, houses,
furniture, large rollers for the textile industry, vats, tanks, floors, mine props, railway
sleepers and many other uses. Maori used their timber for boat building, carving and
housing and their gum for starting fires and chewing (after it had been soaked in water
and mixed with the milk of the ouha plant).
The arrival of European settlers last century saw the decimation of these magnificent
forests. Sailors quickly realised the trunks of young Kauri were ideal for ships masts
and spars and settlors who followed discovered the mature trees yielded sawn timber
of unsurpassed quality for building.
The largest remaining Kauri tree in New Zealand is 1,500 years old, metres tall and
13.77 metres girth.
Although we dont know the tree that the planks for Rangatira came from, we assume it
was a mature tree that almost certainly started its life hundreds of years ago.
most famous native tree.
Kauri is a type of conifer or pine tree which grows in the sub tropical northern part of
the North Island. Ancestors of the Kauri first appeared in the Jurassic period 109 -135
million years ago. The Kauri podocarp (pine bearing) hardwood forests are among the
most ancient in the world.
Kauri are among the worlds mightiest trees, growing to more than 50 metres tall, with
trunk girths of up to 16 metres. They covered much of the top half of the North Island
when the first people arrived in New Zealand around 1,000 years ago.
The wood produced from Kauri is one of the worlds great timbers, long wide planks of
faultless, superb timber were cut from the mighty trunks. Kauri is very hard wearing
and resistant to rot, a piece of Kauri wood taken from a gum field near Whangarei has
been shown by carbon dating to be 34,000 years old.
The timber was used for many purposes, ship building, masts and spars, houses,
furniture, large rollers for the textile industry, vats, tanks, floors, mine props, railway
sleepers and many other uses. Maori used their timber for boat building, carving and
housing and their gum for starting fires and chewing (after it had been soaked in water
and mixed with the milk of the ouha plant).
The arrival of European settlers last century saw the decimation of these magnificent
forests. Sailors quickly realised the trunks of young Kauri were ideal for ships masts
and spars and settlors who followed discovered the mature trees yielded sawn timber
of unsurpassed quality for building.
The largest remaining Kauri tree in New Zealand is 1,500 years old, metres tall and
13.77 metres girth.
Although we dont know the tree that the planks for Rangatira came from, we assume it
was a mature tree that almost certainly started its life hundreds of years ago.
