The forest is thick with trees such as rimu, totara, silver beech, matai and kahikatea. The Waikato still has small stands of natural Kahikatea. However, the population decreases in lowland forest such as beech and kahikatea forests. It also inhabited forests dominated by podocarps (rimu, matai, kahikatea, totara), beeches, tawa, and rata. Bothwell Sawmill was selling totara, rimu, kahikatea and matai in 1912. An area of kahikatea forest was then cleared to create the racecourse. The plains were full of mangroves and was a dense forest of kahikatea. In New Zealand they take fruit from native trees including kahikatea, and rimu. He designed and built the simple cottage in 1872 using locally-grown kauri and kahikatea. It was replaced by the Kahikatea Eco-Village and Art-Space. As the kahikatea was felled, farmers followed onto the newly cleared land. Until the early twentieth century the area was largely covered in kahikatea bush. There are about 370 kahikatea fragments in the Waikato region. The kahikatea tree, "Dacrycarpus dacrydioides", is native to New Zealand.