18 November 2007

Arcus Track

Otaki Forks

page 2

There's a noisy clatter getting closer

There's enough damp in the air for the front uv filter on the camera to be dewy. I take out the microfibre cloth from the bag and carefully wipe it as the clatter gets closer.

We begin to climb again on the other side of the flat. You can see the track where we've just been walking.

It's scrubby track, fortunately not slippery though here and there small boggy patches interrupt.

There's quite a steep drop off to the side but fortunately not too high for my delicate sensibilities.

Definitely scruffy. There are a few plants of interest along the way, but mostly grass and weeds interleaved with gorse, bracken and scrubby natives.

I think this fern is one of the brakes, but I've never been able to get a positive identification on it to my satisfaction. That's the family that includes bracken and you can see the likeness.

The winding track drops back into a relatively sheltered gully and a bunch of punga are taking advantage of it. You can see the same pattern along Auckland's west coast, around Bethells, where in amongst the scrub there are sheltered gullies full of punga.

Banks are covered in a small leaved rata, moss and small ferns.

We ford several small streams on the way up.

There's no shortage of bush lawyer

A DoC sign points to a detour due to track damage. Looks like a re-cycled model.

We follow the orange triangles up and around.

The hills are fairly grand but the ubiquitous presence of gorse detracts somewhat.

We're a decent height above the river just now.

Looking downstream we get some wonderfully touristy misty hills and velvet shadows.