Opanuku Pipeline Track

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It's a firm eroded clay surface, through bush filled with dappled golden-green light and shade. Don't get too carried away though, as those slanting clay surfaces can be treacherous after even a light shower.

Here's another, koromiko, that I haven't seen until now. There is a significant change in the quality and appearance of the bush on this side, mostly for the better.

The canopy is still predominantly kanuka, but much richer in variety, and denser, beneath.

Once the initial shallow V is established in one of these tracks the centre drops into a narrow ditch soon after. It's not pleasant straddling the ditch and neither is it present walking on a consistent slope with the constant potential for slipping.

An elegant arm of lawyer reaches out towards us as we pass,

and here's a kanuka sending forth its first new spring shoots.

Ah. The Opanuku Pipeline Track, to be sure. Maybe some track maintenance before something gets seriously broken...

A small tanekaha makes its way through the ferns.

About now we start to level out a bit.

Here's a relatively early mingimingi flower, Leucopogon fasciculatus. Latin fasciculus means "a (small) bundle or packet".

I said the track was mostly firm.

Down off the track a little is a crown fern.