This stand of ancient pohutukawa known as Te Uru Tapu or the Sacred Grove is significant to local Maori as the group of trees are a continuous living link to ancestors and centuries of occupation of this site^[1].
The significance of Te Uru Tapu is due to the historical practice of placing ancestors’ bodies in the forks of the trees which was the initial part of a process call "secondary burial". Once decomposition was complete the skeletal remains would be removed, cleaned, then taken through a second period of mourning and relocated to another burial site^[2]. The decaying nutrients of the dead would ultimately have been taken up by the host tree and therefore they would become a living part of it. Trees and locations such as these were considered highly tapu or sacred (Cadwallader, B.G., 2015).
References:
1) Takapuna Beach Reserve Management Plan, www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz, accessed 28 May, 2015
2) http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Maori.html accessed 28 May, 2015