what is it

The photo suggests that it is one of the arborvitae species, in the genus Thuja (pronounced thu-yuh). There are over a dozen species, and several dozen cultivars, mostly for the American arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis). Which species you actually have can’t be discerned from the photograph you posted here. If it was planted in an ornamental garden, it could be any one of several species. You list your location as Aukland, NZ. Is that where you found the tree?

The tree was growing in a garden in Auckland, New Zealand. It was a request for removal and I had to name it as it was on the application form as 'conifer', from the largest contractor in NZ. Mainly T.occidentalis and T.plicata grown here but not exclusively. I knew it was not T.plicata but as there were no characteristic cones that I saw when looking at the tree. Sometimes I put spp. if I am not sure (once I called a palm a palm and wrote Unknown in the botanical classification) but this time I put American arborvitae (T.occidentalis), I took the plunge knowing that after putting it past all four of my colleagues there was no certainty, so the questions/contradictions were unlikely to come thick and fast and as I said I think the tree is history now so the evidence is destroyed.