Pohutukawa have a special place as part of the New Zealand summer and nowhere more so than in Coromandel, where a 10-day festival to celebrate the native Christmas tree is held in December.
Cycling events,markets, art displays and music are all part of the festival, held this year for the second time.
Hundreds of people will gather for a pohutukawa party at the Waikawau reserve near Thames.
Funds raised will go to protecting and saving trees.
Dr Gordon Hosking, who has studied them for more than 15 years, says the common belief that the timing of pohutukawa flowering forecasts what kind of summer it will be is largely a myth.
"We knoe so little about the basis for flowering that, quite frankly, we just don't know."
A decade ago, the outlook for pohutukawa was dismal. It was discovered that 90% of costal pohutukawa stands in Northland had gone.
Possum damage, pastoral farming and human activity had all taken a toll.
Spending more than $2.5 million, thousands of volunteers have planted more than 250,000 pohutukawa and rata throughout New Zealand since 1990.
Project Crimson's latest scheme is to develop a walking guide to the best stands and most spectacular individual trees in the North Island.
To view these trees, take a look at:
http://www.projectcrimson.org.nz/trees.html
