20 May 2007

Ian Wells Track

formerly Auxiliary Dam Track, or Upper Nihotupu Track

page 3

Here's a dry lancewood pole, with it's characteristic rippling muscles effect.

And here's our first stream-crossing. It looks straightforward enough, but the stride needed to get you across is right at the end of the scale for this elderly and stout person. I manage it, just, by grabbing a tree on the opposite bank, but on the way back I lose my footing and slip back down. Nobody's perfect.

There's an odd combination of openness and quite tall trees.

More rimu, and some boggy bits.

This has something of the look of a Schefflera about it but the leaves are more goldy-red than I expect and they are broader for their length. Some Pseudopanax species might fit the description, but I'm not sure.

We continue on a comfortable track, with lots of specialist scrub species to be seen along the way

A young lancewood pokes its head up for a look around.

A gentle bit of uphill, with some care needed on the slippery bits.

A bloody Hakea down across the track. I hate these things. It's not a Maori name, it's named for a German called Hake. They're spiny, unlovely, and invasive in areas I would prefer to see occupied by kanuka or manuka.

More rimu. They're really making a difference on this track in their contribution to the visual environment.

Here's a quite lush moss with a houndstongue fern overhanging and a couple of small mushrooms. Now is the season for mushrooms, and while nothing beats the Riverhead Forest for exotic colour and variety, there is much to see if you keep an eye out.

A young miro presents it's quite individual foliage for inspection.

and a young kauri. Did it get here by itself, or was it planted?