There are two large specimens close to each other at 'Ratanui' but no others are recorded in the region (Fuller 1983).
'Ratanui'. 'The property known as Ratanui (giant Rata in Maori) on Carrington Road, New Plymouth, has a setting of most impressive trees, many of national significance. Regarded as the cradle of horticulture for the district there still remains an element of mystery concerning its early history and this may never be resolved despite intensive investigation on the part of the present owner, Mr John Arthur. The stump of the giant Rata, which served as a landmark and identified the area for the Maori, remained until the early 1930s when the remnants were cut up for fencing. It is said to have been about 5 metres in diameter and on an important inland trail, between the Rewarewa Pa at the Waiwakaiho River mouth and Omata to the west. It is perhaps fitting that large trees remain dominant features in the area, many of the fine specimens having been planted in the earliest days of European settlement. Mr Arthur has located documentation which reveals that in 1857, Charles Brown, son of the previous owner, Charles Armitage Brown (deceased 1852) buried on Marsland Hill beside St Mary's churchyard and well known as a good friend of the poet John Keats, leased the part of his land now known as 'Ratanui' to James Laird, who operated it as Egmont Nurseries until his departure for Wanganui in 1868. Local tradition suggests that Laird was preceded on the property by another famous horticulturist, John Nairn who arrived in New Plymouth on board the 'William Bryan' in 1841, but no documentation to substantiate this has so far been located though there are references which come tantalisingly close to resolving the mystery. John Nairn is known to have been a very skilled gardener and to have owned a nursery in England prior to his departure; to have received seeds from overseas and to have been involved with the planting in 1847 of the two Mediterranean cypress (Cupressus sempervirens). They are still present over the grave of the Reverend Bolland in St Mary's churchyard New Plymouth. (This is the first documented planting of exotic trees in Taranaki). Several very old specimens of Mediterranean cypress occur in the grounds of Ratanui and there is a complete shelter belt seemingly of similar age on a property across the road' (Fuller 1983).
'The girth of the tree was measured again in 1992 and found to be 3.80m'. Watson 1993.
Reference. Burstall SW. FM. Report no. 19. 1973; p.27.