OPINION
The oak tree is coming down, the neighbour said. She was at her letterbox and I was on my way home with a few essentials - sponge cake, a Bounty Bar, yams. We stood and talked about it for a few minutes. It wasn’t an easy decision, she said, and still wasn’t sure about it. The tree was like a local landmark. It was spectacular, the biggest oak for miles, a tree rich with a million dollars worth of gold in autumn, shedding its hair throughout winter, right now about to bring forth its new spring range. But it is coming down.
The oak tree is one hell of a nuisance, she explained. Its roots were ripping up the driveway. We stood at the driveway entrance; it rose up, and then rolled down towards her house. The tree made its presence known in the air - it obscured passing aircraft from Whenuapai; it could take 60 seconds for the heavy, lumbering RNZAF Hercs to emerge from one side of the tree to the other - but was also busy working itself way underground. It had brought wreckage, devastation. It has to come down.
The oak tree has gone out of control in the past year in particular. The neighbour thought the spread of its roots might have something to do with the floods of summer. Extreme weather had devastated Auckland in every direction. I live near water. Cliffs were washed away; bad news for homes on top of those cliffs. To swim in the water in summertime was to float on your back and look up at the beautiful homes through the branches of pōhutukawas. But the pōhutakawas were washed away, too, and came down.
The oak tree got loose in the floods, maybe, and its roots ran amok - something like that. The neighbour had brought in a heritage arborist from council. He examined the tree. He said it was his job to save trees. But the oak had become bad news, he said. It was a clear and present danger, he said. It wasn’t going to get any better, he said, and he speculated that things might get much worse. It might fall over and smash everything in its path to bits, maybe kill someone, he said. He recommended the tree come down.