Giant Kauri Tree

By John Wattie

Stereoscopic anaglyph  Music Control Here  
  If the music is distorted (more common with Quick Time than Windows Media Player), 
  stop it with the control and start again. (There are patches to cure Quick Time glitches when playing .avi files, and maybe Apple should fix how it plays midi files too).

 

 Waipoua Kauri Forest.     

Tane Mahuta is the Lord of the New Zealand Forest. 

This Kauri is 13 meters round and one of the world's oldest living things at over 1,200 years.  The vertical panorama picture is big, to match the tree, and takes a while to download. It will not fit on your screen and you will have to pan up and down, as befits such a magnificent vegetable. Notice some of the crown branches have broken off in storms. Because Kauris shed bark and branches, they have a clean trunk, with epiphytes only growing in the crown. The wood is straight grained and was considered good for sailing ship masts.

> It is amazing how such a huge tree can vanish in the forest. Just walk a short distance away from Tane Mahuta and you cannot see any evidence of him as he disappears behind lesser trees. Some huge Kauri trees have been found in the forest, then lost again for years because of this phenomenon.

The largest known kauri tree (Kairaru) was far bigger at 20 meters round, but  burnt down in 1886. 

Tane Mahuta, Giant Kauri Tree. Vertical Panorama technique by John Wattie. Low resolution jpeg (see the author if you want a printable version).

 

John Wattie Panorama Photography

Vertical panoramas of trees do not reveal the same "distortion' shown by architectural panoramas, as here Tomb of Unknown Soldier, Canberra      This is despite using the same geometry. The top branches of the tree are directly above the camera in just the same way the ceiling is overhead in the ANZAC tomb, but despite that the tree picture looks conventional while the architectural picture does not.

 

 

 

 Stereoscopic Kauri trees from Waipoua

  Bad Luck, No Music - you need a plug in. Haydn, Timete Deum   

Panorama Photography 

Panorama Photograph in Puketi Kauri Forest

 New Zealand Images   

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