The little vine you see beside the cache here is rata. It can grow like this, or the seed may lodge in a tree, and the rata will grow a root all the way to the ground. Either way, with some species of rata, the plant will grow up, fully encircling the host tree with thick root structures. The host tree dies, and the rata becomes a rata tree in its own right. These ones are distictive - you see the thick root structures winding their way down the host tree. However I did not see any of this species of rata at kaipupu.
There are two main types of tree rata. Northern rata is found throughout the North Island and in the South Island, south to about Westport. Southern rata is found from sea level to the treeline and distributed from Whangarei south to Stewart Island, although it is rare in the North Island. A third, white-flowering tree species, called Bartlett’s rata, is extremely rare with only about 30 adult trees in the wild. There are six species of rata vine and one shrub.
Supporting the GeoKids program - my caches have treasure, makes them fun for kids to find!