28 July 2007

Sharp Bush Track

page 3

The bush has changed again, to a more open and scrubby type.

Off to the left is an unsigned sidetrack. I'm picking it heads down to one of the private properties adjoining this area of park.

Mos and lycopodium line the track for a bit.

It's later in the morning now but still the odd shaft of sideways light picks out a piece of vegetation, in this case a young rewarewa.

If there's a candidate for a vegetable stick insect, the young lancewood is well to the fore. Which I guess just says that it's a tree resembling a stick. But it's actually a tree resembling an insect resembling a tree.

Blechnum fraseri are thick just along here.

I think this is a lycopodium, but pictorial info on the New Zealand species is not all that easy to come by.

Here we are at the top end. I rein Alice in, find her a liver treat and grab a drink of water before turning back, this time with fewer photos, and travelling downhill.

A somewhat sickly looking young kohekohe lacks the vigour I'm used to seeing in the reserve at Woodhill.

A biggish rimu shows a characteristic bark pattern.

and beneath a fallen tree a pasty white fungus tries out various shapes.

back to the van and acup of tea and biscuit, then up Mountain Rd to the small Fairy Falls Carpark.