For centuries, the creation story has thrived despite its plurality. Christianity tells us how god made the universe in six days, Hinduism, which doesn't follow a single view on evolution, draws from the myth of Brahma emerging from an egg. There is also naturalist Charles Darwin's theory of complex life evolving from simplistic ancestors. Three weeks ago, we welcomed one more story to this growing repository, under a canopy of overgrown, ageing trees, nearly 12,000 km from home, in the Waipoua Kauri Forest of Northland, New Zealand.

We were here to meet 2,000-year-old Tane Mahuta, the Lord of the Forests, of whom we had heard so much by the third day of our stay in Northland that when Charles Naera, our local guide, led us to this imperial tree, it was impossible to not be in awe. Standing at 51.5m, with a trunk girth of 13.8m, this ancient kauri (agathis australis) tree, native to the country, has also been given the title of the separator of heaven and earth.