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Don’t worry, be happy: if you can’t bring yourself to cuddle a tree, simply sidling up to it has recognized health benefits. Japanese researchers at Kyoto University found that walking through bush or forest, rather than pounding city pavements, reduces depression, relieves anxiety, alleviates boredom and improves feelings of wellbeing. What’s more, subsequent field trials at

Chiba University showed that simply standing still in a forest for 15 minutes can reduce the concentration of the stress hormone cortisol in our saliva by as much as 13 per cent. OPPOSITE: Once pried free of their devices, the younger members of Lynda’s family, Lucas and Lachlan Hinton, took to tree-hugging like kererū to kahikatea berries, quietly clasping the lichened trunks of this towering stand of Dacrycarpus dacrydioides.