8 December 2007

Zion Ridge Track

page 2

It's good striding territory along here.

The longer serrated leaves are rewarewa.

And here's a young kawaka, not a common tree by any means, and looking more like something out of the northern hemisphere.

Here's nicely symmetrical frond. Don't have the name right off.

We're moving out into a largely kanuka canopy again, and the surroundings become somewhat more scrubby.

You'll notice the track narrowing somewhat.

Here's a sedge in flower, alongside a clump of NZ flax.

And here's a lush koromiko.

More kanuka canopy, and my impression is that conditions here are a little tougher.

The track is tending to require a little more attention, too.

Here's a small creeper. Anyone who can give me a hand naming it will be welcome.

Houndstongue fern is common along the way.

As we approach the Zion Hill end of the track, vegetation becomes more scrubby and the track begins to close in.

Here's a flower to go with the small creeper a few frames back. Midges are swarming along here, and I spend a bit of time wiping them off.

This sedge with its small tufty flower is, I think, a Carex, possibly C. dissita, but I'm not highly experienced sorting sedges.

A kawakawa reminds me of a cup of refreshing kawakawa tea that Tony Foster made for us on the Lake Track at Whangaroa. I grab my water bottle from the camera bag. Pays to be alert to little signals like that.

The track is both narrower and deepening.

and here we are.