Rain Reigns in the Rainforest

Today's activity is our organised guided walk into the Oparara Basin in the Kahurangi National Park.  It is home to some impressive limestone formations in the middle of native bush.  They have some giant snails, but these only come out at night. You could go on a cave tour, as they have ones with Moa and other extinct bird bones in, but we opted for a natural history walk instead - caves are too scary!  It was a five hour trip, but that included transport to the Oparara Basin, which is 14km along gravel road, and a cut lunch - they do know there's a vegetarian.  Our guide picks us up at 9am.

This looks very interesting.

As you might expect with any trip into the rainforest, we started with rain, and lots of it. Donned full waterproof outfits. Our shoes had just about dried out after yesterday's muddy foray so it was nice to see well prepared paths as we left the car park. About 100 m further on in the forest...a stream with no bridge or stepping stones. Nothing for it but to wade through ankle deep water - sighs resignedly. 

We, in fact, had three separate walks centred around the visitor information sites and car parking areas.  First we headed for the Honeycomb Caves which are inside the protected part of the reserve only accessible with a permit. We walked into this area by crossing the Oporara River (there was a bridge this time) and followed it upstream for about an hour, stopping regularly to discuss the plants on view. Thankfully a number of the streams were crossed by bridges as the water was rising all the time, and they were looking quite dramatic.

Eric sees no sign of Elves, Orks, or Gandalf himself, even though one of the bridges is over the River Nimrodel. It's where the Elven lady of the same name lived in Lord of the Rings. It was given this name long before the filming of the book took place in NZ.  Originally the river was un-named. It had to be given a name when they opened up the track to the public as it helps if they need to rescue you.

Nimrodel.

The area is Karst country - that is it has a lot of limestone - but this is laid down on a bedrock of granite, so in some areas granite boulders form good waterfalls. 

There is also a layer of mudstone on top of the limestone. As with the ecosystem in Doubtful Sound, there is very little soil here and the trees have shallow horizontal roots.  

There are large numbers of trees blown down by a cyclone that happened the day before Easter this year. The damage is concentrated in narrow swathes in different unconnected sections of the forest. Bill tells us this was because there were lots of mini tornado type events.  He was out on a tour at the time, they have not had a cyclone here before so it was unexpected, and he said it was pretty scary.  He lives in a valley about 20km away and the lane to his house was blocked with huge fallen trees that he had to cut through with a chainsaw - he wasn't able to get through to his house for 10 days.

Just before reaching the cave system itself we stopped at a large overhang that had originally been a cave and had since been carved out of the valley sides by the glacier, which had also eroded the stalagmites making them fluted in appearance. 

Eric thinks we are wusses for not wanting to go and see the Moa bones in the cave just over the suspension bridge.

As we were too scared to go into the kilometre long tunnel section we returned to the car with the intention of having a bit of lunch. As it had now stopped raining and the wind had dropped we had a change of plan at the car park and headed off to Mirror Tarn. This is a small lake in a bowl formed by the collapse of the area into a giant sinkhole. As its name suggests there can be spectacular reflections of the surrounding forest in the water. Today the reflections were clear but they were not perfect because there was still water dripping from the encircling trees, creating a fairly consistent ripple effect across the lake. The resulting reflection was reminiscent of an impressionists painting of what the view should look like. 

You may or may not have spotted that the photo is upside down!

The tree ferns were looking spectacular with their fronds or Kopua just unfolding .

Some photos of the Filmy Fern and Kidney Fern in situ instead of on a piece of paper as in earlier blog!

Walking back from the tarn a Whio or Blue Duck is spotted sitting on a log on a shingle bed in the middle of the river. This is an acutely endangered duck here.

We decided not to wake it up as it was looking very comfortable.

We pass a Red Beech with a very colourful trunk, and then a Totara tree, also with an interesting trunk.

Back to the car park and now it really was time for lunch. Eric was agitating for some food at this point. 

OK where's the food?

I'll help opening this hamper. 

Eric pondering whether he'll sample the black olives. 

A good spread and just because you're in a rainforest doesn't mean you should do without a nice tablecloth. 

The Vege sandwich appeared to have ham in it. Luckily it was only mis-labelled rather than completely wrong.

A New Zealand Wood Pigeon is seen flying across the car park whilst we eat.  Unlike our Woodpigeons, the ones here are scarce and protected. An inquisitive Weka comes to see if there may be any scraps on offer. Obviously knows this place is a common picnic spot. 

Southern Bush Robin is also about.

Lunch over, we take on the third walk of the day. This time it is to the Oporara Arch. Following yet another section of the Oporara River, this time we head upstream, with some pretty muddy sections. The river was some 30-40' below us and almost straight down. The walk is up to our usual gentle amble standards as there are far too many new plants to look at, have our guide name and provide some detail of their particular characteristics. Bill is a font of knowledge. 

Here are 3 Orchids, a Spider Orchid , and  2 Tree Orchids with no common names. 

We reach a bend in the river and see a spectacular arch curving across the river about 100' above us. As the guide makes no mention of it we assume we are going to get a better view of it a bit further along. We are very wrong. This arch, as big as it is, is simply a taster for the amazing structure a few steps and a short climb further on around the riverbend. This time the arch is the same height but stretches back for about 200m. Light is visible at the far end and the river is running through it in a torrent. The structure was originally a cave, but the ends have collapsed to form this long open arch.

At the entrance to the cave/arch there are some interesting plants, a spleenwort and a particularly nasty stinging nettle. The nettle, like its Australian cousin, leaves both it's silica sting and some poison in the wound and whilst the initial pain subsides after a few hours, can return any time later when the affected part gets hot or cold. This annoying effect can last for many months. 

Stinging Nettle. 

There are the remnants of stalagmites hanging from the roof 

and on the opposite side all three layers, granite bedrock, limestone and mudstone are clearly visible in layers. 

Walking back from here our guide hears a native nightingale, but no view of it.

Umbrella Moss in situ.

Muehlenbeckia axillaria. A creeping plant where the berry is in fact two seeds encased within fleshy swollen petals.

Tmesipteris - no it's not a  spelling mistake. We had to put it in just to get you all trying to figure out how to say it. It's common name is Fork Fern and it is one of the oldest in the fern family (it's been around a long time). Instead of spores it has tiny little 'cones' as reproductive structures.

As we return to the car the river is now noticabley higher.  

If we'd come when the weather was dry we wouldn't had half as much of an exciting day.

We are dropped back at the motel at 4pm, a good value five hour tour as it lasted seven hours.  Feet are wet so go to explore the delights of Karamea shops to see if we can find something to wear while ours dry. Not hopeful since the whole area has a population of less than 600 and there only three shops and a garage. The information centre (which is also the farm supply shop and garage) has some flip flops but they are the wrong size. She directs us to the hardware shop across the road.  Emerging from the iSite we wonder where the shop is as we can only see the small supermarket and a shop with lots of plants outside. We know it isn't the former so we venture into the latter.  It is the correct choice - the shop is like an Aladdin's Cave, selling all sorts of things but not many of any one thing. A pair of tidy trainers is found ( Welsh speak for 'just what was wanted').  There is only one pair of size 9 on the shelf, but on closer examination they were both for the right foot. Ask the lady for the other one - 'it's on the shelf' she says, looks, no it isn't - there's only the other right foot shoe in the same size.  She thinks that some of the young lads that frequent the place may have carried one shoe round with them and put it down somewhere else in the shop! - a search follows. No luck.  Decides that someone has come in, bought two left foot shoes and left without noticing (unless of course they had two left feet!). 

Back to the motel for dinner and preparation for our trip back to Greymouth ready to catch the Tranzalpine train on Sunday. 

Flames in the Forest

After breakfast, with eggs from unidentified chickens and bacon from pig No.1, we set out for a 4WD land rover ride followed by a short guided native bush walk to the Flames in the Forest (an hour each way). The Dutch couple came too. Our host had informed us the walk was mostly flat but with some tree stumps to negotiate so that sounded just up our street.  We travelled along the main road, then a gravel road, then a farm track and finally a field before jumping out for the hike.  

Eric announces that he'd re-discovered the extinct Moa, and has photographic evidence to prove it.  We didn't like to disillusion him by telling him it was an Emu, remnants of when they used to farm them here. 

The track is muddy with clay, pools of water with bits of tree to step on in them.  Our guide (Shelly) stops to show us a native Black Beech tree. The bark looks like it has been ravaged by a fire, but is in fact covered in a black fungus.  

The fungus is home to a scale insect that lives beneath it, feeding on the sap of the tree and excreting a sugary 'honeydew' droplet from a fine tube. Local farmers 'employ' bees to collect this, processing it into Beech Dew Honey.  

The fine white lines visible on the trunk are the excretion tubes.

The fungus also absorbs a lot of water sometimes making the tree branches so heavy that they break off. 

The honeydew is also a food source for both the Bellbird and the Tui. This is when it is not being raided by wasps, which can get so numerous that when they take the droplets it negatively affects the bird population.  So they control the wasps.

We have to cross a stream with some stepping stones. 

Some are covered by water after the recent rainfall has swollen the watercourse.  Does disaster await? Our guide strides into the water and holds out a walking pole to aid people across. Amazingly no one fell in, not even me!

We see a variety of Coprosma bushes, they are known locally as Wigi Wigi trees, or sometimes as Mingi Mingi.  The leaves growing the wrong way giving the tree a twisted tangled appearance is called divarication. There is also a Weeping Coprosma bush or Weeping Mapou, with heart shaped leaves that seem to be attached the wrong way.  

Am I sitting in a Wigi Wigi or a Mingi Mingi tree?

Further on she (who's she, the cat's mother?) points out some Red Beech (on the RHS) and Silver Beech (on the LHS) - the latter is the only species of beech not to have the black fungus on the trunk. 

The Lancewood tree seen at Doubtful sound also grows here, and there are good examples of all three stages in it's development - a young one with the serrated leaves pointing up, a slightly older one with theses leaves drooping down 

and then the mature plant that has the different type of leaf completely. Having these distinct juvenile and adult stages is termed heteroblasty. It's the one in the middle.

On Stewart Island at the bottom of the South Island this tree only has the one type of leaf - there were no Moa there and so no mechanism for preventing browsing of the leaves by them was required.

Shelly points out a Bush Lawyer, a form of Rubus, same family as the Blackberry. It is a vine and has backward pointed spines on its leaves that can trap animals if they venture into it. 

There are a whole load of different mosses, ferns and lichens.

Eric meets another new friend, once again we hate to disillusion him but, surprise surprise, it's not a real Kiwi.

A Pepper Tree - the leaves are edible ( and very peppery!). People are starting to harvest these as a commercial product, selling them to be used as an antiseptic amongst other things.

This fern's common name is 'Prince of Wales', and it only one cell thick (therefore a filmy fern?). It is very beautiful.

Lots of undulations, slippery clay, puddles and some steps later we reach The Flames.  You may have wondered what on earth The Flames in the Forest might relate to, was it a big forest fire or what? Well here's the answer...

Natural gas is seeping out through the rocks here and was first lit in 1922 when two hunters discovered it as they threw a lit match, and 'Bingo' the gas ignited.  It has been burning almost continually ever since, although sometimes the position of the flames alters.  

That's not the best bit - Shelly put a billy can of tea in the flames and a griddle pan, pulled out a pancake mix and some Beech Dew Honey for us to have a delicious snack. Yummy. 

Eric is waiting for his pancake.

Note the guide's attire.  Apparently it is the Kiwi way when tramping in the bush to wear shorts, or if it's a bit cold, shorts with thermal leggings underneath.

There was a Robin as cheeky as the ones at home as he was waiting for some food scraps, but very different colouring.

Having fully satisfied our hunger pangs after all our hard work we return along the same path, spotting some new things as we go.

A Club Moss

A Bird's Nest Fungus on a twig.

A stoat trap, with a dead rat in it.  Our guide has to clean this out and re-set the trap. 

Back at the farm we eventually spot the deer he farms.

And his dogs

On the way back in the land rover Shelly tells us a bit about Murchison history, including about the earthquake in the 1950s (15 people died); and the first person to try to blow himself up with sticks of dynamite as a protest in 1905 outside the local courtroom, which allegedly moved two feet off its foundations. The sun makes a brief appearance. 

Back to the B&B to collect the car and drive to our next destination, Karamea, on the top of the West coast you can see the weather is not being quite so kind to us today. 

With only 26 miles to go and a balmy 14deg C with a bit of a haze Flossie tells us it will take us over one and a half hours to get there. This is an indication of the bendiness of the road as we go over Karamea Bluff.

Arrive at Karamea before the shops shut for the night so able to supplement our groceries... As well as visit the beach and the estuary.

There was pounding surf as far as the eye could see. No surfing or swimming here though as it's too dangerous with a very strong under-current.

The estuary.

Back to the estate to do some housekeeping (washing and a meal) and to prepare for our next guided walk to the Oparara Basin tomorrow.