9 June 2007

Cutty Grass Track

page 5

Wow. Where did that come from?

Right in front of me, about 20 metres in, unadvertised and completely invisible from the main track, is a massive kauri, at least 2 metres in diameter, possibly more. Later I am told that because it is such a short tree, it was spared milling at a time when it might otherwise have been vulnerable. Meet Shorty!

A juvenile lancewood is like a straw beside this massive bulk. Me too, for that matter..... I could get to like this tree.

Around it's roots are small pockets of litter and compost. Down at the base is a variety of filmy fern I have not seen before.

A small Quintinia is also getting started

I take some time out from small distractions to just examine it's craggy bark, and appreciate its size.

I even stop being hungry for a bit. Onwards.

It's pretty gentle walking along here.

Now and again, a steepish bank gives opportunity for a grand display of kiokio, or palm leaf fern.

The end. Half-way, anyhow.

Now you tell me?

Alice is these days pretty much used to bushwalking and sticks close by, for the most part, on the path, but I keep a closer eye on her on the way back.

Broken glass in the carpark. Yes, well, it is Auckland we're living in, not some idyllic South Island paradise. I go through the usual redneck response bit of wishing I could catch the bastards at it and smash their vehicle up a bit. Probably bloody stolen, so that's no use, mutter mutter, mutter. See how fast you can generate a bad mood. I take out the thermos and the bacon sandwiches.

I like the difference in sign size. It's just a couple of signs, each standard for its intended viewers, but you can get all metaphysical if you want... Alice wonders if we have to walk all the way back.

We do, and off we go again.

I'm told gorse wine is a country delicacy among home wine-makers, but the pain and suffering involved in collecting a kilo of gorse flowers has always made the idea singularly unattractive to me.

Among a complex of fallen trees, a massive set of kiekie root/stem winds itself around.

A young mahoe shines its particular shade of green at us from a patch of shadow.

Here is the other form of bush lawyer I promised you earlier. I was at first inclined to say Rubus parvus, but its leaves are single and this is in groups of several. That probably makes it R. schmideliodes var. subpauperatus.

We're moving along at a steady clip now, with the benefit of lunch adding energy, and the prospect of a cold beer adding speed.

This is a good example of the prevalent kanuka canopy

and here's a reminder of the recent visit to our shores of the painted apple moth, a not unattractive little creature, but with the potential to devastate large areas of orchard and forest. These traps were set up to monitor the continued existence of the pest in the face of a massive control program.