Kōrero: Conifers

This log of Hall’s tōtara was found near a tributary of the Awatere River in the inland Kaikōura ranges. When European settlers arrived in the region in the 1860s the land was covered in shrubs and short tussock grass. The original forests, dominated by Hall’s tōtara and mountain beech, had been burnt by fires lit by Māori some 500–700 years ago.