The Giant Puriri wept,
It remembered.
It remembered back before the coming of the white man
It remembered back even before the brown semi-native clan
arrived and had begun to use him as a meeting place.
Back even before then he had been fully grown, a large tree;
not as large as the mighty northern Kauri whose voices he
once heard on the warm nor-easterly now mere whispers.
But a large tree all the same. Even the bird life knew of him
as a local landmark, fighting each night amongst themselves
for a perch in his highest branches so as to be one of the
first to see the new morning and when his branches bore the
weight of the fruit he also had the added weight of large
numbers of wood pigeon who stuffed themselves on his fruit
and could flap no more than a few feet. Wood pigeon rarely
visited anymore.
Although there had been more human visitors recently
creating tracks around his base trampling undergrowth and
destroying his sensitive aerial roots so as to get a look in
awe at his ancient spread, now three quarters dead his
trunk hollowed and rotting the only life left in his branches
supporting perching lilies and the few remaining native
species of bird mostly crowded out now by immigrants from a
northern land.
Two thousand years in one place is a long time and the tree
felt that time in its creaking branches, more of which it
dropped each time there is an unfriendly wind.
Two thousand years is a long time and the tree feels this in
its battered top growth exposed as a sub canopy tree
shouldn't. The result of bush clearance and an immature
regrowth with few older trees left the medium sized Puriri
assumes a patriarchal role amongst its neighbours, unsure
of such responsibility the normally reserved tree is not used
to such attention except in summer when it bursts into
flower.
It remembered happier years when its annual show of
flowers was the envy of its drab green neighbours and
flavoured the anticipation of the local wildlife promising a
bumper crop of berries on which to stuff themselves. The
surrounding undergrowth supported large numbers of his
offspring. Its lineage guaranteed at least in the short term,
with the possibility of any of his younger selves reaching his
prominence severely shortened with the further
interference of man.
But 2000 yrs is a long time and the Puriri remembered and
wept.