UPDATED 4.48pm: A man who's stopping developers felling a 500 year old kauri tree in West Auckland says he isn't going anywhere.

Michael Tavares has been issued with a trespass notice and the owner of the land says further action will be taken if he doesn't leave the property.

In a tweet he says 'an officer of the New Lynn police just told me that if I stay up here from now, I will be trespassed. I'm not going anywhere!

Developers want to chop the Kauri down to make way for a deck on a new property in the Auckland suburb of Titirangi.

VIDEO: Protesters gather in Titirangi

Protestor Michael Tavares says he's going to be up there all day, and if they try again tomorrow he'll be straight up there again.

"The contractors first came and saw that I was up here and made the right choice that it's not safe for them to work.

"Not safe for them, not safe for me."

Protestors have been there since early this morning and say they're also not going anywhere any time soon.

Save our Kauri spokesperson Aprilanne Bonar says the contractors have been doing drive-bys since they were supposed to fell the tree at 7.30am.

"There's been three or four trucks that have been coming back and forward.

"We've also had the police attend and ask what was happening and they're now waiting at Titirangi Beach."

Aprilanne Bonar says about 50 protestors will be there indefinitely.

Former PM weighs in

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark has weighed in on the battle to stop a 500-year-old kauri from being chopped down in West Auckland.

Miss Clark, now the Administrator for the United Nations Development Programme, posted her views on a photo of supporters at a protest Titirangi, where the old kauri is due to be brought down.

NZME. reports she wrote - "extraordinary in this day and age that a permit would be given to fell a 500 year old kauri tree."