Man has grappled fiercely with nature over every inch of the Otago Peninsula, and today’s landscape bears little resemblance to the pre-European terrain. The dense coastal forest that once clothed the hills has almost every­where given way to bare pasture, and if the district can still be said to have a signature tree, it is the macrocarpa. Thousands of this salt- and wind-tolerant species were planted for shelter, and a good number of centenarians are still standing.