Thread: Widowmakers

They were named widow makers by the early kauri loggers. A lot of them were killed by the falling astelia clumps, some of which weighed over a tonne. Which begs 2 questions: being widow makers, does that mean they singled out married men only? And as these guys were using hand saws, how come they didn't hear them falling? Well, one of my staff in the Waitakere Ranges was nearly hit by one..it landed less than a metre from him on a quiet day in the forest..all he heard was the "whoosh" just before it landed. He said another couple of steps forward and he would have been flattened.