23 February 2007

A Step Up

The Greenstone Track

Day 2, Page 2

Up into the forest and moss and lichen dominate again

There's one in particular which never fails to bring my mother to mind. It was one of her special favourites and every now and again I come across a specimen I know she'd love.

It's good for you, it's good for you, it's good for you.....

And now bloody tree roots as well....

I daren't stop for a rest in case the moss gets me.

More tree roots

When I can tear my stout and elderly attention away from my feet for a bit, there are nevertheless small treasures to be had.

We're back out in the valley for a bit, but the sun is still casting long shadows on the side where we are.

At first you think it's a mineral colouring in the rock, or dried scum of some sort, but closer inspection reveals another lichen at work.

There's also a token appearance of a ragwort. These flowers produce countless thousands of seeds, which can remain in the ground, fertile, for years, before growing again. There's a body of opinion in the south and west that DoC regeneration policies are encouraging the spread of the weed, along with other local favourites such as Californian thistle.

Here's another small treasure. When I find my copy of Salmon, I'll get a few names to these.

Another watercourse

and an old North Island friend against a background of South Island Coprosma.

More valley. Some people prefer the tops, but for me there's nothing like the broad valleys and looming mountains on either side to give me a feel for the immensity of the landscape I'm going through. I get a sense of scale that seems totally appropriate to my own (relatively) tiny dot of existence.

(Arthur's Pass was an eye opener, though, as well. I'd been accustomed to mountains that you went up and then went down again. To get to the top of Arthur's Pass and then drive 60 km before coming down again was to understand mountains in a totally new way.)

Back up into the bush again and a new motorway is there to greet us. I'd been genuinely concerned till now about whether this fatman was going to arrive at the Greenstone before dark. But here we can stride out.