Back over the stile, straight ahead a few metres and then we curve down to the left. (For those wanting a shortcut back to Selwyn Rd, keep straight ahead and bear right.)
At the bottom of the hill, about 50m along, the topo map shows a significant road heading off to the left. It's there, but you have to bush-crash for about 50 metres through the scrub and pampas grass before it opens out. It's quite a pretty track, but we're not going there today. Just ahead on the left is a gate and stile marking the entrance to another section of the native bush reserve.
This piece of bush is exposed to harsher west-facing conditions, and the general appearance of the undergrowth reflects this. There are areas where the carpet is almost completely barren, and other areas that look as though a mass germination of seed was followed by a race for the sun. Everything is young, tall and exceptionally spindly.
This section of bush also contains a large number of young tanekaha - average trunk diameter up to 125mm, alongside the predominant pate, five finger, and mahoe, all spindly and tall.
Whatever information this pole once carried has long since gone.
As we clear a small rise we are once again in east-facing bush, and immediately the undergrowth becomes much more luxuriant.
Shortly we reach the junction with the Northern Long Loop Track
At this point, you can take a right turn to follow the official CHH short loop track a couple of hundred metres to a gate and stile, then left to a T-junction, then right to Selwyn Rd, or you can take an extra 30 minutes or so, turn left, and take in a rather attractive piece of regenerating bush,
which is what we're going to do.
Just round the corner is a miro.
and a little further, a stand of young rimu
Now, I've seen one small totara back near the old lookout, but in general, there are no totara, rimu, kahikatea, miro etc in the southern section of the forest. Along here there are lots, and I'm wondering whether there was a deliberate afforestation program by the Forest Service at one point.
The moss along here is luxuriant.
The canopy is still largely old kanuka, but it's starting to open out and give way.
Alongside the track on the left is a juvenile miro.
and a number of big spreading tanekaha
Mingimingi (Cyathodes juniperina is also common alongside the track. This species has single flowers and opaque berries varying in colour when ripe from white through pink to scarlet.
In spring,you can almost see the new growth on the mingimingi appearing as you watch.
Not many of these berries make it to ripe in Woodhill. I assume they provide good tucker for something. (I have tried the ripe berries, following information they were edible, but I wouldn't leave my lunch behind on their account.)
The leaves are more needle-like than its close relative, C. fasciculata. Note also the longitudinal veins on the C. fasciculata. the flowers here are in bundles - fascicles - and the ripe berries are translucent rather than opaque, and a bright red in colour.
Towards the end of this piece of track, on the right, is a mature wharangi, (Melicope ternata) the shining lemony-green leaflets in groups of three. This is the only mature specimen that I know of in Woodhill, but there are a number of 2-3m specimens scattered here and there along the track.
Wharangi in flower
A little further on, to the left of the track is a small patch of kidney fern, (Trichomanes reniforme) not all that common in the Woodhill reserve. The kidney-shaped leaves are all but see-through.
Totara are much more common as we progress and the various tree daisies - Olearia species for the most part - are also more common as we enter again a slightly more exposed section of bush, just before the northern gate.
