27 February, 2008

Gentle Annie Track

Mt Holdsworth

page 3

For a while we are walking with a wonderful view across and down the valley

Kamahi is in bud beside the track. It is a dominant element in the canopy in the bush down this way. Kamahi honey is a distinctive blend.

A wind-shaped small kanuka is just across the path

Kiokio lines the track as we sidle along the edge of a particularly steep section

Koromiko is seldom far away - a blessing for those whose absent-mindedness in respect of bush hygiene has generated an attack of diarrhoea.

The canopy once again closes over us - just.

A small beech is just establishing itself. Hard to envisage the buttress-trunked giant it will become in time when we see it here.

A small clematis vine draws itself up on a flimsy support, until it can grasp something firmer.

Coprosma grandifolia is here, though not as plentiful as it is further north.

We cross a small bridge leading over a deepish gully. After day one on the St James walkway, I am deeply grateful for these bridges that allow us to maintain our altitude instead of losing and gaining, losing and gaining, every time we hit these gullies. They're good for leaning on and being thoughtful, too.

Hullo? What's that? The thwock, thwock of a large pigeon sounds from just down the hill.

It's steady and comfortable walking, now under cover, and now out in the open again.

There's enough track like this for it not to be a motorway, and not enough to piss you off. A good balance

About the centre of the picture, just above the treeline, you can see Powell Hut, and behind it, Mt Holdsworth.

I put the telephoto on the camera into action to get some more detail. Almost like binoculars.

That ridge you have to climb to reach it looks pretty daunting, but several people will pass me on the track, walk up to Powell Hut, and arrive back at the carpark within a few minutes of me on the return trip.

We seem to be levelling off a bit.

Here's a closeup a kamahi bud.

And here's some lichen that by itself would have had Mum up here to take a look.

I find it quite strange recalling Mum, some twenty years after she died, and miles from anywhere she would recognise, but you do remember the things people get excited and passionate about - for whatever reason - and lichen was just one of Mum's things.

Onwards. I grab a swig of water from the camera bag, and find a piece of home-made biltong for Alice. This is some left over from November and I think it's past human use-by, but Alice just loves it.

We're losing a little altitude here and in the slight shelter the trees have suddenly become larger than they were a minute or two back.