NGĀ RĀKAU
TREES

St Mary’s churchyard has the open spaces we enjoy today because in 1861, the time of the land wars, the government prohibited all burials in the town of New Plymouth and opened a new cemetery at Te Henui. The blend and survival of native and exotic trees are not easily achieved and require continual care.  

Ngā mihi to the steady stream of gardeners who have cared for this whenua for generations. 

THE TREES TELL THEIR STORIES 

Our cathedral sits on the hillside of Pūkākā and for thousands of years has been prized for its rich natural resources. Our trees, shrubs, grass and birds remind us that here two worlds have come together. Rāngatira and priests, settlers and soldiers lie in ancient soil under trees brought from across the sea, growing side-by-side with indigenous rākau. Rimu, Pūriri and Kauri share the ground with Cedar, Oak and Elm. 

The trees here have stories to tell… 

Since the 1400s, the tītoki and raupō lining the Huatoki stream looked up and watched as Te Ātiawa dug trenches and planted kumara on Pūkākā. Gardens were tended and the hill was named after the sound of its birds. By the 1730s, Pūkākā had become one of the most significant pā sites in the region, home to the paramount chief Rangiapitirua.  

Over a century later, the first English settlers arrived in 1841. When Bishop Selwyn came, he found the gardens, native shrubs and trees which stretched back up the slopes of Pūkākā to its summit and chose this place to build St. Mary’s, the first stone church in Aotearoa.  Its stone was sourced from Kawaroa reef, descending from Maunga Taranaki. Rimu timber was placed in the Huatoki stream to season before being made fashioned for the church’s roof trusses and seats. In this way St Mary’s came together, built from the land it sits upon. 

When war came in the 1860s the trees could not stop it. The English military leveled Pūkākā for it’s headquarters, brought it down by 15 meters, destroying the ancient pā site with earthworks, leaving the abundant hilltop stripped bare. 

Yet even in the times of war new life came, trees were planted by settlers on the graves of their loved ones: Cyprus, Yew, Hawthorn, Cedar, Oak, Magnolia, Elm, Beech, Chestnut Myrtle and more. These trees from far off places found home here and put down their roots alongside Karaka, Rimu, Kauri, Pūriri, Tōtara, Tītoki and Kawakawa; and speaking of Kawakawa... 

In 1956 Te Atiawa placed pare kawakawa (wreaths) on the graves of the soldiers, covering the painful inscriptions with the healing qualities of the plant. This act of forgiveness continues as we cultivate these gardens in the spirit reconciliation. 

Karaka 

Pūkākā was once home to a magnificent grove of karaka trees filled with kākā birds, their sound so loud that the hill became known as Pūkākā. 

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Mediterranean Cyprus x2 

These were the first exotic trees to put down roots in New Plymouth, planted in 1847 at the grave of St. Mary’s first vicar, William Bolland, who is buried next to his infant daughter, Mary Dora. 

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Glastonbury Thorn 

Archdeacon Govett planted this from a cutting he collected from England in 1859. This is a Comon Hawthorn, but has traditionally been called a Glastonbury Thorn, and is associated with legends about Christ’s Crown of Thorns, the Holy Grail and the arrival of Christianity in Britain. 

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St. Mary’s Oak 

In 1841 a little acorn travelled across the seas from Yorkshire to New Plymouth on board the Amelia Thompson. It was planted 58 years after it first arrived on these shores in 1899 and became known as St. Mary’s Oak. 

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Kauri 

This is an introduced native, Kauri don’t usually grow south of Waikato. It was planted by local historian William Skinner and his wife Margaret on 5th October 1940 to mark their 60th wedding anniversary. 

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Tītoki 

Planted in 2024 to honour the Waikato Warriors who fell in the battle of Mahoetahi 6 November 1860 

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CEDAR OF LEBANON 

This cedar shades the grave of the English soldiers of the 57th regiment killed in 1863 during the Land Wars.  

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English Yew 

Sometime between 1861-1870 Archdeacon Govett planted this tree. It is a long living and lasting tree, a tohu of immortality and lasting life during a time of war in the region. 

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ka patupatua e rātou ā rātou hoari  
hei hea parau, 
ā rātou tao hei mea tapahi manga. 

They’ll turn their swords
into shovels, 
 their spears into hoes. 

 Isaiah 2:4