Found on dry dune land and low hill country in Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, Wairarapa and coastal Marlborough and Canterbury, including Banks Peninsula. This ecosystem includes scattered kahikatea and mataī with occasional rimu and tōtara, emergent over a variable canopy of tawa, māhoe, tītoki, hīnau, maires, pukatea, and pūriri.

In Banks Peninsula, this ecosystem includes lots of tarata, but tītoki is rare, and tawa, maires, and pūriri are absent.

The expected natural range of kahikatea-mataī/tawa-māhoe forest forest is 419,344 hectares, mostly across Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, Wairarapa and coastal Marlborough and Canterbury

Common native species, photos courtesy of NZ Plant Conservation Network: