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We head on up, and up. The kauri are now smaller and closer together.

Hangehange is particularly lush up here with some of the leaves nearly 12cm in length. As we hit the crest of the ridge, the kauri get even smaller, thinner and closer together

I wonder to myself exactly when kauri roots become vulnerable to trampling feet.

Just ahead of me Miranda and Alice have come to a halt. Alice is barking furiously at a spot in between two punga trunks. I pat Alice on the neck until she settles, still watchful, and check internally for the presence here of what I refer to as the old ones, the guardians of the forest. Fanciful, perhaps, but those of you who are familiar with other areas in my website or with a wide and open-minded experience of our native bush will likely know what I am talking about. A moment's quiet and Alice relaxes.

Many years ago, in my teens I used to head out whenever I could to camp and skindive around Mayor Island. In the home bay, S.E. Bay, the beach is lined with huge old pohutukawa, each marking the grave of a Maori leader, I was told.

One of them was different. This one was known as the Princess Tree. Old hands walked around it rather than under it, and you were likely to be warned smartly if you lay in its shade, or God help you, tied a shoreline to it as did the navy on one occasion. So the story goes, they lost their electrics on the boat and nothing the engineers tried would restore power, until it returned of its own accord some hours later. Ghost stories....

I know from my own work in healing that sometimes strange energies impinge on human existence, and I have found also from experience that dogs are very often sensitive to the presence of these energies. Not that every barking fit indicates a superphysical presence. But there is a particular quality of barking that both Alice and Babe have displayed in the past that I do pay attention to.

We head on up, through some lovely old pungas, but the canopy by and large is very open. I am glad I applied some sunblock before we left.

Corokia buddleioides appears here and there in drier areas.

Some interesting shadows are worth recording

Mapau appears here and there. It is one of those trees I pretty much take for granted unless a particularly vigorous specimen changes the colour of the local air to a bronzey red.

Here and there are small shrubby carmichaelia.

We start to head downhill a little and as soon as we drop to the east of the ridgeline, the bush thickens up enormously and the litter on the path also increases considerably.

About those vulnerable kauri roots....

Against the drab bush litter, a frond of Shining Spleenwort reflects a late afternoon ray of sun:

There's quite a bit of lush fernery around just here. Here's a lovely hound's tongue.

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