Fattest tree entry ruled out

Southern Rural Life asked readers to send in a photo of a tree in the South with a trunk fatter than 11 metres.

Posing near a large macrocarpa tree on Stewart Island are (from left) Jared, Tyson (5) and Joshua Nielsen, all of Invercargill.

Last week in Southern Rural Life, retired farmer Selwyn Fosbender shared a photo of a macrocarpa tree on his property near Invercargill.

He believes its 11m circumference could make it the tree with the fattest trunk in the South.

Joshua Nielsen was the first to answer the call, supplying this photo of three generations of the Nielsen family standing by a macrocarpa tree on Stewart Island in July 2019.

Unfortunately, nobody measured its trunk on the day, so Mr Fosbender’s tree remains the fattest.