Fairy Falls Track

page 3

The path heads briefly away from the stream for a few metres, still hard rock underfoot and suddenly there's noise up ahead. Miranda has discovered the Falls.

There's about 10 metres or so of hardrock streambed to cross and while it's not slippery rock, I imagine that in wet weather there could be problems. (When we return, I notice a decided increase in slipperiness just here.)

I mince carefully across, and as I emerge from behind the scrub, there they are:

There's a rail up top where they are presently rebuilding the path over the top of the falls, and a notice at the bottom of the steps saying 'this far and no further'. The steps, given the morning downpour are still very wet, but Miranda spreads out her raincoat and uncorks the thermos.

(I uncork a thermos for the same reason restaurants still charge corkage on screwtop winebottles. My grandad's thermos when I went fishing with him as a boy had a cork. My grandmother still used to hoover the floor - with an Electrolux - for the same kind of reason.)

Miranda grabs the camera and heads up to the rock pool below the waterfall looking for that magic mix of texture and form,

photo by miranda woodward

but today it is for the most part elusive and it is not until later, when she shifts her attention to the ferns, that she finds what she is after.

photo by miranda woodward

photo by miranda woodward

photo by miranda woodward

I'm more of a specimen photographer than an artist, but even so, occasionally even a specimen is attractive enough to warrant a Wow! afterwards. Here's a Coprosma australis in flower, still wet from the morning rain.

Miranda captures a juvenile pate, (Schefflera digitata) against a backdrop of moss

photo by miranda woodward

to go alongside the mature form she grabbed earlier. Not all young pate exhibit "juvenile characteristics. In fact Salmon, in Trees of New Zealand stated that they occurred only in the upper North Island, though I have photographed one at Arthurs Pass.

photo by miranda woodward

There are even some intermediate forms

It's not raining any more and I reckon I'll be working harder going uphill than coming down, so I pack my raincoat, and take a last look around.

There's an enormous tawa across the stream, a beautiful tree with it's leafy golden green branches.

Up above the falls are some more big trees.

and downstream the light shines off the shallows

We head back along the way we came, and I discover a boulder by the stream simply covered in green nertera (Nertera depressa) and its red berries, with filmy ferns, irirangi, matua mauku, (Hymenophyllum species ) in small clumps amongst it, all making a living out of a piece of hard rock.

photo by miranda woodward

More bloody steps....

Actually, as far as steps go, this is an excellent track, well-graded and benched for the most part, and the uphill return trip is quite comfortable, even for the stout such as I. If it gets too much you can always stop and look at the Sky Tower through gaps in the trees.

Here is a rata vine like a huge snake encircling a tree which it will eventually kill.

A young fern is bright against its background:

We reach the car and I am surprised to find that we have managed it so quickly. Probably, DoC time for the track would be closer to 30 minutes. There must be the occasional fat DoC officer, though I'd have to say, I've never met one.

See you next time. (For a continuation of the Fairy Falls Track, from our 061028 trip, click NEXT.)