Our hosts at Wilderness Lodge Lake Moeraki described the kāmahi tree as the “forever tree”. The trees are a feature of the ancient forests surrounding Lake Moeraki. Although these trees can grow to 20 metres and have a beautiful white flower, similar to koromiko, they generally don’t attract the same attention as the much taller rimu and kahikatea trees. However, they are the ones that give you the weirdest shapes in the rainforest.
This is because they don’t necessarily die when they fall! Instead, they can sprout multiple trunks from the fallen tree and even create arches as they grow in increasingly complex patterns. They have had plenty of time in an ancient forest to evolve ever-weirder shapes and combinations.
Kāmahi trees are also a feature of the ancient goblin forest around Mount Taranaki.
