The Big Rimu Walk is a nature trail near

Karamea Karamea is a town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the northernmost settlement of any real size on the West Coast, and is located northeast by road from Westport. Apart from a narrow coastal strip, the town of Kara ...

, located in

Kahurangi National Park Kahurangi National Park in the northwest of the South Island of New Zealand is the second largest of the thirteen national parks of New Zealand. It was gazetted in 1996 and covers , ranging to near Golden Bay in the north. Much of what was t ...

on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. A short walk of through regenerating bush leads to a large rimu tree (''

Dacrydium cupressinum ''Dacrydium cupressinum'', commonly known as rimu, is a large evergreen coniferous tree endemic to the forests of New Zealand. It is a member of the southern conifer group, the podocarps. The Māori name ''rimu'' comes from the Polynesian ...

'') that is tall with a trunk over in diameter and estimated to be over 1,000 years old. Other smaller rimu in the area were logged during the 1940s but this large tree was left. The regenerating forest is dominated by

kāmahi ''Weinmannia racemosa'', commonly called kāmahi, is an evergreen small shrub to medium-sized tree of the family Cunoniaceae. It is the most abundant forest tree in New Zealand, occurring in lowland, montane, and subalpine forests and shrubland ...

and nīkau, but there are also small rimu trees emerging. The large rimu itself has a northern rātā vine on the trunk, with extensive rātā foliage in the canopy. The tree hosts a large collection of epiphytes. One notable feature of the track to the large rimu is the presence of '' Dawsonia''—a giant moss—growing alongside the track.

References

External links

Video clip - Big Rimu Tree Walk - Karamea, New Zealand

Walks in the Karamea Area, Kahurangi National Park
at the Department of Conservation Kahurangi National Park Buller District Hiking and tramping tracks in the West Coast, New Zealand {{WestCoastNZ-geo-stub