Image via  TreeWikipedia

Upon a bluff a group of Pohutukawa trees stand amidst them a young seedling grows protected by the older ones. This was long before people arrived on these shores.The little tree learned  from whispers that were born on the wind of trees growing through out the land.As he grew bigger he could look out to sea watching the clouds roll up above, and the sea in all its moods roll into shore. Early one morning he saw something out on horizon of the  sea, as it drew nearer he thought it was a large pod filled with golden brown seeds.To his amazement they were able to hop out of the pod and move around,unlike him firmly anchored in the ground.He watched as they cut down some manuka and made little bushes which they hid in at night or when it rained,unlike him he had to face what ever weather came his way night or day.Time went by and some of the little bushes grew trunks like his and stood above the rest, the seeds put sticks up to the higher bushes and would climb up and down on them, if Pohutukawa could have scratched his head he wood have.He was quite perplexed as these seeds never took root or stood for long in one place,they just grew old and shrunk away disappearing altogether,replaced by new younger seeds who rushed around it made the tree dizzy to watch all the goings on. The older Pohutukawa slowly died and fell to the ground around him no seedlings came to replace them. Old Pohutukawa remained upon his knoll, the winds whipped round his trunk twisting him into a grotesque shape knotted branches and bent limbs, his leaves grew few in number and his flowers faded fast, still he held his ground.Another pod arrived a different shape and larger size. The seeds that came in this pod had white tips like the Toitio the rest of the seeds body was covered in black or brown,shabbier seeds he had never seen. These seeds only stayed a while,  returning later in greater numbers.  Two pods came ashore and for a while all was swell, the brown and the white got on well. Not so the trees many more fell to the seeds of Toitio hue who used them to build dwelling places, Rimu trees and Karhikatea trees were the first to fall. Pohutukawa watched and waited growing older all the time. One day there was such a racket and things like bees struck the tree, if they hit a seed the seed fell to the ground and never moved again. Pohutukawa still stood firm the seasons changed nothing was the same. The Toitio seeds grew large in number and the golden brown decreased for a while. Many buildings grew up where trees had been these were often made of stone. Still the tree stood firm. To this day though old and bent out of shape it stands surrounded by streets a seat surrounds its trunk where the seeds of many colours,shapes and sizes sit and rest  in its shade wondering at its age.