Milling marathon under way

A 100-year-old cedar tree is being put to good use at a North Canterbury saw mill where it will be turned into items such as furniture, a hot tub, garden sleepers and bee boxes, to name but a few.

John Fairweather of John Fairweather Speciality Timber Solutions said he was pretty excited at the prosect of working with such a large tree.

‘‘It’s quite spectacular, the biggest I’ve ever had,’’ he said. ‘‘I was actually worried at first that it wouldn’t fit through the saw mill.’’

The enormous cedar measures 1.5 metres in diameter. The tree’s owner, a beekeeper in Waiau, wanted to get some bee boxes made from some of the timber and it became a joint venture between him and Fairweather.

The cedar is something a little bit different for Fairweather who normally deals with locally-grown eucalyptus, from which he makes 6x2 and 8x2 boards for farm use, although he also has a healthy stack of ironbark which originated from Australia but which he salvaged from Lyttelton.

Fairweather also produces a lot of tongue and groove flooring, and is currently experimenting on producing a wider floorboard at his timber mill in Sefton.

The site also houses a solarpowered kiln, which is pretty unusual in New Zealand — he copied the idea and built it himself, saving a vast amount on his power bills.