The Gentle Giants of the New Zealand native bush

The Gentle Giants of the New Zealand native bush takes the reader back in time to the summer of 1938. The author, Gordon McKenzie, recounts his boyhood experiences in the company of a twenty-strong bullock team, the bullocky and the bushmen as they go about their lives and their tasks in felling and removing logs from the forests in the north of New Zealand. As well, Gordon shares a wealth of knowledge regarding New Zealand’s native trees and the birds that dwell in and around them, including the iconic kiwi. In the final chapters of the book Gordon describes a scene of typical Maori hospitality and reflects on some of the changes in New Zealand forestry work in the years since WWII. This 2017 edition of The Gentle Giants includes Gordon’s recollection of the Duke of Gloucester’s visit to Northland in 1934, a description of Gordon’s first close encounter with kiwi and some entertaining boyhood adventures that Gordon shared with his brother.