6 June 2006 and 13 May 2007

The Upper Nihotupu Dam

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We carry on down the hill with the sound of more waterfalls loud and clear.

A flowering lacebark (houhere) catches the light against a dark bank.

To the right a track heads back to the base of the big fall. Miranda checks out the best angle for a photo.

The light/shadow contrast is quite strong and as it happens, our best shot is taken on the way back.

Photo by Miranda Woodward

When I return a year later, there's something different about the scene which I cannot put a finger on immediately.

Shortly after we get our first look out across the reservoir lake

Almost exactly a year later things are very different.

We keep going and my attention is drawn to a plant clinging to the rock surface along the side of the road. It's everywhere.

Not until a bit further on do I spot a give-away flower or two.

Erigeron karvinskianus. The curse of Epsom!

At first I hadn't associated this apparent creeper on the wet stone wall with the bushes covered in daisy flowers that I am used to, but a closer inspection confirms it.

There is also another plant that I do not recognise, often growing side by side with the erigeron:

Miranda is more interested in the rock surfaces themselves.

Photo by Miranda Woodward

Photo by Miranda Woodward

To the right, the reservoir lake is calm. We have a couple of attempts taking photos across the lake but there is so much light coming from the bluedome afternoon sky that the opposite bank hillside is almost jet black. Up ahead is the dam, with the spillway to the right.

A year later, this is what it looks like:

We carry on along the road, the banks covered in fern.

To the right, a drain collects water from the opposite bank and drops it into the lake. There's a wonderful set of bright red plant roots playing across the rocks where the outfall lands.

Photo by Miranda Woodward

Miranda is also much taken with a tall dead tree trunk rising out of the scrub against the clear sky.

Photo by Miranda Woodward

We pass a storage building with attached boatshed, and continue around towards the dam.

Somewhere in the Watercare signwriting department is a router operator with the soul of an artist. I especially respond to the delicate little fernleaf and the wiggly bits round the top of each post.

Off to the right, the reservoir returns a clear reflection of the dam.

A year later, this is what we see.

If the Waitakere Dam seemed large, this one is bigger still, some 50 metres to the valley below.

But, a year later, without any water in it, the spillway is simply gathering moss