Speaking at the NZNO awards dinner, kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku said the award itself, of Oamaru stone, pounamu and
pohutukawa, was "not just an artefact--it carries with it the energy and lifeforce of its recipients".
And with The
Pohutukawa Tree, which was given a workshop presentation by the New Zealand Players in 1957, a television production by the BBC in 1959 and a radio production in New Zealand in 1960, before it began to have a ubiquitous life on New Zealand's amateur stages, Mason produced his definitive melodrama of the 'social real', the inherent conflict in the colonial story between Maori and Pakeha.
Much of the distinctive fauna of the fynbos in the Western Cape of South Africa is either extinct or is endangered by introduced species such as the golden wattle (Acacia pycnantha) from Australia and the
pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa) from New Zealand.
The night was tight-lipped, the moon, Methuselah-hag, shuffled across the mudflats on her sticks of
pohutukawa. Crabs!
Nowadays, students do not study Bruce Mason's The
Pohutukawa Tree, but New Zealand's highest grossing film, Boy.
A 45min-1 hour walk will take you to two spectacular coves nestled between cliffs covered with sprawling native
pohutukawa trees.
According to historical accounts, the Christmas tree in Australia was first called
Pohutukawa. The European immigrants were the very first people to have assembled Christmas trees in the country.
At Mahurangi Island, the vegetation is long grass with patches of bracken, gorse and large areas of regenerating native plant species such as manuka (Leptospermum scoparium), karo (Pittosporum crassifolium) and
pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa).