A 20m monkey puzzle tree in Helensburgh Rd, Dunedin, was solved in less than six hours by Eco Tree Care arborist Sean Hancock this week.
"We started about 9am [on Wednesday] and got it down and away about 3pm. They're not the nicest trees to climb. They're pretty spikey and you have to wear eye protection," Mr Hancock said.
"We don't get many monkey puzzles, because they're protected by the DCC. But, they all seem to come at once and we've got one to do in Fairfield and another one in Ross St at the moment.
"A lot of them were planted in the 1920s and they're all getting over 90 years old now. The urban environment is a much harder life for them and they're starting to slowly die," he said.
"Trees do have a life expectancy, because they're living things and they do all eventually die," Mr Hancock said.
"We try to recycle as much of the tree as we can, by wood-chipping the branches and turning it into firewood. But, I'll be giving a lot of wood from this one to the wood turners' guild, because it's a really popular wood with turners. It's certainly better than turning it into firewood."
The popular name of the genus is believed to derive from its introduction to Cornwall about 1850, when it was remarked that "it would puzzle a monkey to climb that".
