We climbed a lot of steps for a view that’s okay but not stunning. The lookout platform is small and the trees are obscuring parts of the vista. The quarry at the bottom is lovely.
The elevation was 702 feet.
Most of the forest was Taraire / broadleaf which produces purple berries the native birds love.
The highlight of the walk was meeting firemen practising for the Sky Tower climb. One of them was wearing his yellow firefighters gear. I know we all appreciate those guys.
This small reserve was bequethed by Charles Carter, an early Wairarapa pioneer. The town of Carterton is named after him.
It’s an area of swamp and semi-swamp forest on two old terraces of the Ruamahanga river. The DOC sign noted that some of the swamp loving kahikatea and totara trees have died since the river changed its flow.
We followed a not-very-well signposted track to the Ruamahanga river and leaving the river we followed a track that skirts the bush. The trees are mainly kahikatea, titoki and matai.
It’s all that’s left of the lowland bush that once covered the Wairarapa plain.
This is a beautiful little bush reserve on the outskirts of New Plymouth. Most of the lowland bush has gone except for this small remnant. There was some logging in the past though as there was a saw pit alongside the Nikau loop track.
It’s a bit different from the bush on the flanks of Mt Taranaki. This bush has a sub tropical feel. There are some good info boards along the track.
Zealandia is an urban sanctuary in the Karori suburb of Wellington, our capital. The bush surrounds a former reservoir. The reserve is home to our rarest birds and Tuatara, a native reptile. Zealandia has been so successful that Kaka, one of our native parrot species, has established itself outside of the pest proof fence. They stopped tagging them when the numbers grew to over 1000.
You can see Tuatara in their natural habitat. A guide gave us a talk on them as we sat and had our lunch. They’re most commonly found at the research area behind the fences.
The entry fee is well worth it. There’s also a cafe.
You can get to the sanctuary from the top of the Cable Car, there’s a free electric shuttle van which travels back and forth.
While we were waiting for the shuttle bus we took a walk in the Botanic Gardens.
Tuatara
Walk #109 Wellington Botanic Gardens, 14th November 2023
This walk started at the top of the cable car. We only had time to have a quick look at the Discovery Garden and Treehouse before heading back up the hill for the bus to Zealandia.
This is a lovely bush fringed lake in the Taranaki Hills east of Eltham. Its got a pest proof fence which means the bird life is prolific. We saw Saddlebacks and Robins on the track.
The lake was noisy as it was Waitangi Day and there were people out on boats and jetskis. Their use is seasonally limited so if you want a quiet walk go after May.
This walk is between Turangi and National Park on SH47.
This beautiful lake is on the slopes of Mount Pihanga – the smallest of the mountains. It’s really a hill. The lake is named after greenstone, Roto means lake and Pounamu means greenstone.
According to Maori legend the volcanos in the central North Island including Ruapehu, Tongariro, Ngarahoe and Taranaki all fought over Pihanga. Tonagariro blew his top over her and Taranaki left, moving south and west, gouging out the Whanganui River.
Lake Rotoaira, a much larger lake, is at the bottom of Pihanga.
On this walk we were lucky enough to see a NZ Robin, the Maori name is a Toutouwai.
We saw a Huhu beetle on a tree by the style as we were leaving.
Marawaiwai Track is a pleasant walk that runs alongside a meandering stream through kahikitea forest near Opotiki. We did the walk travelling home in front of cyclone Hale.
This is a much loved bush reserve. Formerly part of Woodlands Estate, Hukutaia Domain was gifted to the people of Opotiki by E.M.Hutchinson. In 1918 it was set aside as a reserve, mainly to protect Taketakerau, an ancient burial tree which was once the final resting place of the ancestral remains of the Te Upokorehe iwi. The puriri tree was highly tapu (sacred, forbidden to touch).
Taketakerau is over 2000 years old. In 1913 after the tree was damaged in a storm, a large cache of bones was discovered hidden deep within the hollow of the old tree. After the tree was damaged the remains were buried elsewhere.
As well as the puriri burial tree and mighty tawa trees, the reserve has rare plants and abundant bird life. This is the noisiest reserve we’ve walked through as far as the birds go, probably because the pests and predators are kept down.
I give the reserve a triple A – for ancient, atmospheric and amazing.
This is the only patch of bush left on the Gisborne plains. It’s unique in that Kahikatea, which likes swampy soil, and Puriri, which likes well drained soil, grow together. The Puriri has the room to grow up tall and straight rather than branching out like it normally does.
The reserve is small but very well kept.
History
Charles Gray was born in Huntingdon, England in 1840 and spent time at sea in his formative years. In 1870 he emigrated to Queensland, where he found employment as a farm worker. After moving to New Zealand, he purchased Waiohika Farm and became a notable member of the community.
In 1914 the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Napier proposed the purchase of Kowhai Domain to form present day Gray’s Bush, however the Minister of Lands vetoed the idea. Following Gray’s death in 1918, his Trustees approached the Minister, K.S. Williams, in 1924 with over £3,000 to purchase the domain. It was gazetted in 1926 and a domain board appointed to manage the day-to-day running.
They cut tracks and employed a caretaker to keep the picnic areas stocked with firewood and the facilities maintained. This arrangement continued until 1979, when guardianship was handed back to the Crown.
Most of the Mahia peninsula is bare of trees but this reserve protects 374 hectares of native bush. It’s a loop walk along a ridge and then down to the valley bottom where you cross the same stream several times. There’s been rain so the track was muddy in places.
The walk is supposed to take 2 hours but it was more than that, perhaps because of the mud.
Walk: Hawkes Bay 11
History
According to Māori legend, Mahia Peninsula is Te matau a Maui – the fish-hook of Maui.
The Takitimu waka landed here in the 14th century.
Ngāti Rongomaiwahine is the Maori iwi (tribe) traditionally centred in the Māhia Peninsula. It is closely connected to the Ngāti Kahungunu iwi. Kahungungu visited Mahia after hearing stories about Rongomaiwahine, a beautiful woman. He married her and many local people are descended from them.
Rongomaiwahine was descended from Ruawharo, the tohunga (navigator) of the Tākitimuwaka (Māori migration canoe), and Popoto, the commander of the Kurahaupō waka.
From 2007 to 2010 Mahia became known for the presence of Moko, a dolphin.
In Coronation Reserve (Piko te Rangi) on the eastern side of the peninsula is a natural rock basin that was used by Bishop William Williams to baptise local Maori. A small cleft in the rocks was said to have been used to store Bibles.
It reminds me of a megalithic Bullaun bowl. We didn’t see a heap of rocks like this anywhere else on the peninsula.
Links
A bullaun (Irish: bullán; from a word cognate with “bowl” and French bol) is the term used for the depression in a stone which is often water filled. Natural rounded boulders or pebbles may sit in the bullaun. Source: Wikipedia
The birth of Kahungunu Tamatea Ure Haea had three wives, who were sisters: Te Onoono-i-waho, Iwipūpū and Te Moana-i-kauia, the daughters of Ira and Tokerauwahine. With Iwipūpū he had a son, whom they named Kahungunu. Kahungunu the man: Kahungunu (also known as Kahu-hunuhunu) was born at the Tinotino pā in Ōrongotea (later named Kaitāia). His father subsequently moved to the Tauranga area, where Kahungunu grew to adulthood.
Wikipedia states Tākitimu was a waka (canoe) with whakapapa throughout the Pacific particularly with Samoa, the Cook Islands, and New Zealand in ancient times. The Tākitumu was an important waka in the Cook Islands with one of the districts on the main island of Rarotonga consequently named after it.
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab built on the Eastern end of Mahi Peninsular not far from impoverished Wairoa and Fraser town ( Te Kopu) where the great non weapon bearing Waitaha waka Takatimu landed.
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