ONE of Greytown's icon trees has been dealt a near death blow having been hit by a huge lightning bolt on Saturday.
The giant redwood known as the Farley Tree on West Street was split down the middle to about halfway down its height when lightning struck it in mid?morning.
Tree doctors
were yesterday assessing what needed to be done to the heritage listed tree, which is among the oldest in Greytown, in order to save as much of it as possible.
The noise of the lightning strike startled people living nearby and sent chunks of wood hurtling into the street below.
Jean Farley, who lives next door to the section where the redwood stands, said she heard "an almighty crack" that frightened the wits out of her.
"I won't tell you what the first words I said were."
Her nephew Ian Farley had just stepped out the door of his Main Street toy soldiers' business when he saw the lightning bolt making its way to earth.
"I saw it hit the top of the tree and I legged it round the corner."
"Most of the top of the tree had been shattered and fell onto the lawn below but a couple of big lumps of wood had been tossed out onto the street as far as the corner of Hastwell Street."
Family historian Jim Farley said the tree probably dates back to the very early days of settlement when the block of land was owned by pioneer Ben Stevens.
Stevens was among the very first party of settlers to arrive on the site where Greytown now stands in March, 1854.
His 40?acre block was later to become Farley land and remained so until the "renaissance" of Greytown swallowed it up for housing.
Jim Farley said many years ago when radio was in its infancy Greytown motorcycle legend Tui Morgan had scaled the huge redwood to install an aerial.
