There must be something in the soil, here, something kindred to Old Hespero in the very Earth herself, for these girthy wonders tower over me with apparent ease, having drank of the fertile milk of the land. The global diaspora of plants, and trees above all, is a miracle wrought by man, he who plants and delivers seed to lands afar. I have found them! It brings a pool under my eyes to contemplate how far I’ve come, to find Hartweg’s progeny at home here in the Southern Hemisphere. These, and their sister species, the Monterey pine, define the landscape in this area perhaps more than any native species I noticed, though I must admit my eyes were for the California natives alone. Rolling hills, endless and verdant, with cows and sheep drifting about amiably and munching on the lush green grass all around, and too many cypresses to count. Driving here, to my first campsite, at the historic Brook Homestead in Awhitu Regional Park approximately an hour outside of Auckland, I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of giant cypresses hulking in the distance. It is stunning, and I am coming to understand that the might of these trees is nearly commonplace, ubiquitous, in coastal, rural New Zealand. I almost don’t believe how impressive their presence is, the growth far surpassing the vigor of even the ancient ones I have seen at Point Lobos. I sit before the grandest pair of Monterey cypresses that my eyes have ever known, each approaching ten feet in diameter and embracing one another limb for limb, entwined and rising from the earth like behemoths from another realm. – Awhitu Regional Park | Brook Homestead Campground The following are excerpts of my travel log, as well as photographs, paintings, and a couple of poems, of my voyage across New Zealand with Old Hespero. In the home of the Kiwis, where they call the cypress simply “ macrocarpa,” I traversed the landscape in search of trees, and I found more than I could have imagined. In no place is this more true than the island nation of New Zealand. Half the world away, this tree has grown a living legacy in the cultures of countless communities and has indelibly transformed the landscape on multiple continents. My purpose was to follow the Monterey cypress ( Hesperocyparis macrocarpa) wherever it has been planted by people, which for this species of cypress is a great many places. In September of 2019, I embarked on a global journey as a traveling scholar of UC Berkeley’s Geraldine Knight Scott Fellowship.
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