POHUTUKAWA IN BLOOM

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 841, 9 December 1929, Page 10

POHUTUKAWA IN BLOOM

TINTING HAURAKI GULF ISLANDS PRECARIOUS ROOT-HOLDS Poliutukawa trees are blooming in sheltered nooks of Hauraki Gulf. The headlands of many of the islands locking in the Wailemata Harbour will, within a week, be splashed with rich crimson by Auckland’s distinctive flowering tree. In the Southern Hauraki, on Roto Roa and Pakatoa Islands particularly, even the trees suspended from sheer cliff walls with the precariousness peculiar to the poliutukawa are almost in a bloom comparable to that attained by trees in the inlets. There are patches of crimson staining the long coasts of Waiheke Island, and one ridge near Orapiu has the full warmth of the poliutukawa. An early blossoming has been made, although summer is a belated event in Auckland this year. Distant Great Barrier Island will have its harbours brilliantly decked in time for Christmas. Poliutukawa trees in radiant bloom make splendid vistas along the coasts of the province. It was a view of miles of gleaming red in the Bay of Plenty centuries ago which led the Maori voyagers to give the tree its name of “splashing crimson.’’ Today, the poliutukawa makes perhaps its finest show on the precipitous sea-front of remote Little Barrier Island, rearing 2,400 ft directly from the sea.