Norfolk Pine

These trees are Norfolk Pines. They are a native tree from Norfolk Island, a small Pacific island off the coast of Australia and New Zealand.




I love their symmetry - they are quite spectacular along the foreshore of many beaches in New Zealand. In one of my photos you can see them along the front of the park, interspaced with Pohutukawa trees. No matter how hard the wind blows they always retain their simple symmetrical shape.

There are other interesting facts about Norfolk Pines that are not widely known. In the mid 1800's when the missionaries were sailing from England to New Zealand they usually stopped in Australia for supplies of sugar, flour etc. They also picked up seedlings of local plants and by then the Norfolk Pine had made its way to the Australian mainland so they were then transported to New Zealand.

They were planted around many of the mission stations that were sited near the coast. There were several reasons for this - the tree is quite unlike any native tree that grows here, it is fast growing, and when sited on the coast it quickly grows and stands out on the skyline, marking the sites of the stations for travelers arriving by sailing ship into the harbour. In Tauranga, at The Elms, the huge Norfolk Pines planted in 1835 by Archdeacon Brown became known as 'The Sentinels'.

Another reason - on a young tree the top branches form a cross.