26 April 2006

Fairy Falls Track

We did this section as a "there and back" on our 25th wedding anniversary. At that stage the loop track from Fairy Falls to Scenic Drive was still under major repair and closed to walkers.

Our track notes described the 1 hour time allowance to Fairy Falls as generous, and I agree. Even at fatman time, and stopping to take photos all along the way I took just on the hour, and completed the mostly uphill return trip in 40 minutes

It was brilliantly sunny when we left home. Miranda raised an eyebrow when I packed our raingear, but we arrived in the middle of a brief downpour. Auckland weather. Within seconds of starting we're in typical Waitakeres tunnel track, and even though the day outside has by now become once more brilliantly sunny, the overhead trees continue to drip steadily.

We begin to head steadily downhill

The bank to the side falls away quite sharply to the left, and there is a dense undergrowth of parataniwha (Elatostema rugosum). The track surface is excellent.

Here's an example of a parasite on a large punga. I haven't identified this one yet.

Just along the way a very large tree has come down over the track and someone has cut steps across it with a chainsaw. Ingenious...

By the time we arrive a second time to walk the track, the large tree has been joined by a second a couple of metres further on. This one has no such chainsawed assistance for the traveller, and I am obliged to remove pack, camera bag etc and crawl through on my hands and knees. Fortunately Miranda is too much taken up with laughing at me to photograph the occasion.

This is the hole I had to crawl through:

photo by miranda woodward

Someone was telling me about helicopters being used to ferry in the skips of gravel and pine bark used in re-constructing the far end of the Fairy Falls track, and it occurred to me that millable pieces of fine native timber could just as easily be lifted out in cases like this, and any proceeds dedicated to track improvement. Just a thought. There's more ways of recycling native timber than letting it rot for the next generation.

Postscript. On a later trip in July 2007, I note the second tree has been removed, or at least that section of it which was across the path.

Even though it's downhill and wet, the track surface is for the most part gravel and easy walking.

Here and there patches of light find their way in.

More parataniwha and more steep banks below us. Along the upper part of the track, puriri (Vitex lucens) and kohekohe (Dysoxylum spectabile) are prominent, the small pinky-red flowers of the puriri dotting the path beneath. Tui and pigeons are both evident nearby, and the tui especially seem intensely loud.

Sometimes you don't know what you've got till you get home.

I'm in close trying to get a picture of some interesting axillary buds on a piece of parataniwha, and not until I get home do I spot this little passenger. There are jokes made about tourists who spend all their time taking pictures and wait until they get home to see where they've been. Applies to locals as well sometimes. This is another example of the Sony H2 in action.

The bridges are sturdy, and unlike the Okura track, this one does the vertical rails 100mm maximum spacing bit. Not too many toddlers get this far but you can never be too safe when children are involved. Right....

Here is another punga host to a bunch of epiphytes. And a fallen branch is host to a colony of filmy fern.

This picture says it all about Auckland weather. Brilliant blue sky at the top, getting greyer and then blacker as you move down towards the horizon.

Even in the wilderness you're not totally removed from civilisation. The Sky Tower is visible through a gap in the trees.

Is that rain I can see over there?

This patch of bush has plenty of tawa, much more than I am used to seeing in the bush near Helensville, where it's cousin the taraire seems far more dominant.

Nikau is everywhere.