NOTE: when first placed this cache was incorrectly named as ‘Kahikatea’, not ‘Matai’. Oops. Thanks to GSEL for pointing out the mistake. GC6BJNT: NZ Native Trees #18 - Kahikatea has been placed subsequently to enable you to search for a cache where you can clearly see an actual Kahikatea...in fact a whole group of them 
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Matai
Common name: Black pine
Botanical name: Prumnopitys taxifolia
The matai is a lowland forest tree that grows in the North and South Islands and is also found on Stewart Island, though it is uncommon there. It grows 25-30 metres tall with a trunk up to 2 metres across. Young trees are round-headed, but become more open and spreading with age. Matai can live to a great age, with trees reaching over 1,000 years of age.
The wood is brown and heavy, very hard and durable, and was used a lot in the past for floorboards and weatherboards and, to a lesser extent, to make furniture.
The trees are either male or female, with female trees having slightly more compact foliage than the male trees.
Juvenile trees are quite different from the adult. They have drooping spindly branches with rather scattered leaves, 5-10 mms long and 1-2 mms wide. This slowly grows into a shrub of intertwining divaricating branches (leaves turned in on the inside: a defence against being eaten by moa). After a number of years the adult tree grows from the top of this shrub (above moa reach) and the divaricating branches wither and fall away.
Young matai showing the spindly form
Leaves
The young shoots are a brighter colour than the old leaves, giving the tree a fresh look in the spring. The leaves are straight or slightly curved, glossy green on top and a silvery-blue beneath, though they tend to darken as they age. They are around 15 mms long and 1-2 mms wide.
Sorry, no suitable leaf photo available at the moment
Flowers and fruit
The matai flowers from November to February. Ovules on the female tree are very small and inconspicuous. Those that are pollinated mature over 12 to 18 months into a round fruit about 9 mms across that is a deep blue-black in colour with a pale purplish bloom, rather like a very small damson plum.
Bark
Matai bark varies substantially as the tree ages. In mature trees it is a dark grey-brown and flakes off in round or oval flakes, leaving reddish blotches and giving the tree a characteristic appearance like hammered copper. On young trees the flakes are larger and more irregular.
Bark from the tree at GZ showing the hammered appearance
The matai at GZ
The matai at GZ seen from the track
The cache
The cache is a red M&M container and at time of placement contained a log sheet, a sun charm and a parrot hand stamp. Please make sure you bring your own pen or pencil to sign the log. Online log entries that do not have corresponding entries in the paper log will be deleted.