Kaniere Canaries

In this, the last post from Lake Kaniere, I wanted to share with you a few of the lovely bird shots I took. Our birds might not sing like canaries but they all have their own special tunes.

Of course my favourite little bird is first. This tiny adorable male South Island Tomtit (Maori name Miromiro) was full of spunk, he wasn’t afraid to let you know you were intruding in his patch. Just because he’d chosen part of the DOC campground as his territory didn’t mean he was going to vacate it when it became overrun with campers, dogs, cars, boats & caravans. He just had more things to hang from or use as vantage points in his hunt for bugs and intruders. Often I saw him sitting on the very top point of a gazebo or tent, on boat rod holders, camp tables and even the satellite dish on a bus.

I’d hear his sweet little song as he rested in the bush near our van and then his high pitched alarm call rang out when I stepped outside- this was good because I could then get a fix on him and follow him from spot to spot as he flew the circuit of his territory. He caught a number of caterpillars in this tree, bashing them on a branch to soften them up before swallowing them whole.

He kept up the attack on his reflection in any car mirror or shiny window as he had done on the day we arrived. Every day he would spend five minutes or so flapping at the reflection before giving up and moving on. Until his next circuit.

It must be a thing with Tomtits because you might remember we first saw it happen when a female Tomtit attacked the ute mirror when we were driving up the Arrow River to Macetown.

After all the rain we had, you would have thought that a tiny little bird would have had enough of water. Not this little guy, he had a ball (bath) in this muddy puddle for at least 5 minutes.

And here is his mate- well actually it’s not, but it is a female South Island Tomtit, they are much less confiding than their male counterparts. This one was very cautious and even though she came in close she made sure she always had a branch between me and her.

The camp was full of Bellbirds/Korimako feeding on the berries of the many sub-alpine trees that grew around camp. Usually the bellbird has a very melodious song but going by the weird squawking we quite often heard, the juveniles have a lot of trouble learning to sing in tune. They do practice alot though which helps me locate them in the thick branches. This juvenile wasn’t too worried about me standing underneath him, I think he was glad of the audience. In between trying to perfect his singing ability he was filling his belly with mingimingi berries.

There were also a number of large Mahoe (aka Whiteywood) bushes, they were usually full of noise as the Bellbirds, Tuis, Silvereyes, along with a few introduced bird such as Blackbirds had a feast feeding on the plentiful supply of small purple berries.

There were about ten weka around camp- although two died while we were there- we’re not too sure how, they could have been ill or it could have been one of the 15 or so dogs that were in camp over Easter. Once again the sign said ‘no dogs allowed’ and once again nobody took a blind bit of notice.

I know a lot of people think weka are pesky buggers (and they are) but I’m quite fond of them; they have a heap of character to go with their inquisitive nature. A solid beak (that they often poke where it’s not wanted) and strong legs (to carry them off faster than the shoe that whistles past their head).

One day after Easter and after the camp ground had cleared out, I happened to look out the back window and there down near the bottom of the road was a small black ball of fluff snuffling about on the grass verge. I couldn’t believe my eyes, surely not, not another possum out in daylight (you’ll remember we saw a possum on our walk at Cave Creek).

I grabbed my camera and crept down the edge hiding behind some rocks on the way. He didn’t move until I got within a couple of metres of him, when he got a bit of a fright and stumbled off into the undergrowth. He then tried to climb up the flax. Of course that didn’t work, he just shredded the leaves with his massive claws and slid back to the bottom where he just sat there staring at me.

I left him alone thinking he must be ill and would probably die in the next day or two. Especially after the torrential rain we had for the next two days, but no, the next day at about the same time I saw him out on the verge again. Then he slowly made his way up the road casually grazing along the way. He spent alot of time stripping the leaves off a large dock plant before moving on and then making his way down another path.

On the third day, he was starting to look like a drowned rat and he had lost the little bit of fear he had, not even bothering to stop eating as we approached. I gave David a piece of banana to feed him and he scoffed it, checking around for more as soon as it was gone. Ok, Ok, I know, don’t shout at me. But how could I not feel sorry for this cute little fellow even though I know he is one of the most destructive imported pests in New Zealand.

By the fourth day, he was following me up the road. And not stopping when I got down low to take a photo! Perhaps he had been someone’s pet? Although I think unlikely, his ears had a few war wounds so maybe he was just old and being nocturnal, his eyesight would have been impaired by the light.

We were leaving on the fifth day so I checked around by the flax bush where he had appeared each afternoon to see if I could see where he was asleep. I felt rather sad for him, he was curled up in a ball at the base of the flax, out in the open with the rain falling on him. He hadn’t even tucked himself in under the bush in the dark. At first I thought he was dead but he stirred when he heard me and then went back to sleep. So maybe he was sick……or it was too early to get up. We certainly don’t get bored on this journey, there’s always something unusual happening around us.

There are a number of short walks around the lake including the Canoe Cove Rimu Forest Walk which ended on a small beach with a sheltered cove tucked around the corner.

It was a thrill to find quite a number of Sky-Blue Mushrooms or Blue Pinkgill (Entoloma hochstetteri) alongside the track. While not rare they are more frequently found in the Coromandel (North Island) and West Coast (South Island) areas of New Zealand. A blue mushroom is quite rare in the world though, New Zealand, and of all places, India are the only countries that have this bright blue fungi.

With a conical shape it does look like something out of a fairy tale and the lush green backdrop of the moss simply adds to the expectation that a fairy or elf is about to emerge from behind one.

And while hunting for more Sky-Blues we found other fungi, not in such a brilliant colour though but interesting all the same. In the bottom left is the birds nest fungus- a tiny fungi no bigger than my little fingernail, the small brown dots are the spores(‘pills’) that have been splashed out of the ‘nest’ by rain once the top has fallen free. The white helmet fungus on the top right is also very small, & delicate. I have no idea about the weird coral looking fungus in the top left and in the bottom right the fungi were whiter than white, almost opaque.

Another short walk was the Kahikatea Forest Walk through virgin kahikatea forest. Kahikatea like having wet feet so some of the track is along a boardwalk over swampy land. Once the track leaves the boardwalk and moves deeper into the dark and damp forest, the trees are literally dripping in moss.

Towards the end the forest opens up again and we can see why, once again we see the destruction that has been caused by Cyclone Ita. Rather than the Beech trees we’ve seen elsewhere, it’s huge rimu trees that have been ripped out of the ground here. Back at the carpark we talk to a guy who is working at preparing the rimu to be lifted out by helicopter- it’s taken a year for consent to be granted to remove this valuable wood from conservation land and if they don’t start lifting it out soon it will spoil. He heads off into the bush with his chainsaw and we can hear another one off in the distance.

And a few days later and the night before we were due to leave, DOC arrived with a van load of road cones to block off our area of the camp. An Iroquois helicopter was going to start lifting out the logs the next day and it was going to be landing at the camp to refuel. As we were due to leave anyway, we stayed in our spot overnight and moved the cones into place the next morning for them.

We might have been tempted to shift the van over to another site and stay and watch but the weather was still not that great; David had to pack the boat up in the pouring rain. We decided it was time to move on. We both loved Lake Kaniere, is was one of the prettiest lakes we’ve visited, it was just a pity the weather wasn’t a little better given the two weeks we spent there.

Athol in Autumn

Once our van was repaired & good to go we were keen to get back on the road after our unscheduled stop in Te Anau. Funnily enough, we had the most beautifully appointed & large motel unit at Radfords, but we both commented that we felt trapped in an unmovable square box, albeit a box with a luxury spa bath! Life on the road has definitely worked its way under our skin and travelling is now firmly in the blood.

After a busy two weeks in Milford doing so many different activities we decided to head back to Athol for a few days to “re-group” and get some R&R in a familiar place. You will remember we stayed in Athol while we waited to do the 4WD Safari over Nokomai Station. We parked up on the same site as before with the great view over the paddocks and river and beyond to East Dome, although this time the grass was a little drier & the willows had started to turn colour & lose their  leaves, autumn is definitely in residence & rain is badly needed. When Pam (our host) arrived later in the day she exclaimed “:You’re back!, I knew as soon as I saw the van from down the road it was you guys”

For the next few days we relaxed a little, did a couple of short tiki-tours around the district, David went fishing & I continued catching up on my photos and blog posts from Milford; it was great to just relax & enjoy the sun.

You may also remember my blog post on the Vege Shed. Of course we couldn’t pass without calling in again to stock up on free range eggs, vegetables, lamb & venison. As you do. We also heard that on the following Sunday, Trailer SixtySix, an iconic Airstream food caravan was setting up outside the Shed serving coffee & light meals. We marked that down in our busy schedule and headed there for lunch not long after having our regular cooked Sunday brunch!

The coffee & food were superb, I ordered the Slow Cooked Shanks in Red Wine Sauce & Ciabatta Roll & David had the Slow Roasted Lamb Sandwich.  We had a great hour or so chatting to all the locals that were calling in & then the caravan owners who were English migrants who had come to NZ from London about 6 years ago and settled in tiny Garston.

Bart puts his order in-  "Ummmm......I'll have the....the crispy, streaky bacon.....no wait, a venison slider......."

The owners are hoping to set the caravan up in Garston where the National Cycle Trail will pass through the township. They should do good there along with their B&B in the same settlement. The cycle trail is following the old Kingston Flyer rail corridor and all along the road we could see ground works & preparations going on. We could also smell the preparations; every morning in the cold still autumn air a pall of smoke rose high into the sky drifting along in the breeze from the bonfires along the path as they burnt the cleared undergrowth.

The signs of autumn were everywhere, roadside bushes dripping in berries and rosehips, the ground under the chestnut trees was covered in husks & nuts, & on the dull days the beautiful golden elms brightened up the gardens.

Under the autumn coloured trees in a roadside reserve near Garston were dozens of bright red & orange toadstools.

Garston’s claim to fame-

Once David had fished the section of the Mataura River which ran behind the campsite we drove up past Garston to Brightwater to check the river out up there. He found a couple of guys on the riverbank enjoying a beer. They were from Auckland & on a fishing holiday & not having too much luck. But they did tell us about the Brightwater Spring which was just over the river and through the paddock.

We waded across the river and scanned the paddock, it looked to reach right over to Castle Hill without a break. We followed the fenceline across the grass for a few hundred metres until we came to this beautiful stream that cut across our path and joined the river further down. The water was very cold & gin clear, the stream bed was a mass of small coloured stones and the water plants (I don’t like to call them river weed they were so beautiful) were an array of brilliant greens gently swaying in the flow. The odd trout that we spotted quickly hid.

We turned up the stream and followed it for some distance looking for the source. We found a couple of fairly large areas where the water was bubbling out of the ground & joining the stream but we kept going hoping to come across the actual beginning of the water flow. Unfortunately boggy ground and a heavy barb wire fence halted our progress.

Part of the spring

We decided we couldn’t go any further so turned back towards the river taking a more direct route across the grass. And that was when we found dozens and dozens of horse mushrooms. Individuals, groups of 3 or 4 and huge fairy rings to match the size of the mushrooms. I didn’t have a bag with me so I filled the hood of my jacket, pulling the drawstring firm to hold them. There were so many that I could afford to be selective, only taking the buttons, which looked more like door knobs, and the large new clean ones. Mushroom soup for dinner that night, followed by chicken & mushroom casserole the next & mushroom tart on the third. You wouldn’t guess that I’m not that fussed on mushrooms but I can’t miss an opportunity of making use of nature’s bounty.

We didn’t need to get our feet wet again when we got back to the river further downstream. This old "bailey stock bridge” was in place, it made for a great photo subject. I’ve never seen one quite like this before, I would think the farmer would have to shift it before heavy rain or winter arrives. It could quite easily be washed downstream.

Just north of Garston I spied this rustic woolshed which looked great against the backdrop of Castle Hill.

Right next door were a large flock of sheep looking very white against the green grass, they’d obviously just been shorn.
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The next day when we came past the woolshed yards were alive with more shorn sheep. A classic & iconic New Zealand scene. I joined a carload of people who were taking photos too.

And finally it was time to hitch up and say goodbye to one of our favourite camp sites. The campground is closed over winter due to the cold conditions and the water freezing in the pipes but Pam has said we’re most welcome to park over anytime as we can use our own facilities. I’m sure we’ll be back again but I have a feeling it won’t be during the winter.

Kepler Track- One of the “Great Walks”

The Kepler Track is one of DOCs “Great Walks”, its a 60 km, 3-4 day circular track that starts on the gently sloped beech-forested shores of Lake Te Anau climbing steadily up onto and along tussocky alpine ridges, past Mt Luxmore, through deep gorges, down the steep Iris Burn and back through beech forest along the shores of Lake Manapouri. Being so close to Te Anau the “Walk” is a very popular tramp and the huts are booked up well in advance. The car park close to the Waiau Control Gates where the track starts and finishes was full of rental cars both days we were in the area with people entering & exiting the track constantly.

There were a number of day walk options available on the track and we decided to do the 4 hour return walk from Rainbow Reach to Moturau Hut. The hut is the last one on the Kepler Track & we would be walking against the normal flow of traffic. As I’ve previously said we usually like to do a loop walk so we’re not seeing the same scenery twice but with a hut at the end to entice us (in fact two huts to choose from), a few other interesting features on the walk and two swing bridges we decided there would be enough to keep our interest.

This is the fabulous swing bridge at Rainbow Reach, one of the largest we’ve seen and capable of taking 10 people at once, although it looks like it could safely take a few more. The bridge crosses the wide Upper Waiau River which flows from lake Te Anau and into Lake Manapouri.

The walk starts in quite an airy light filled beech forest with a moss covered floor. The track is well formed and in fact we both commented on the feeling that this walk had a “commercial” feel about it. So much so that I felt like there could be somebody hiding behind a tree waiting to tell me off if I stepped off the path. We also passed a number of people & groups walking the track, a few making a huge amount of noise- those are the ones that then complain about there being no birds in the bush!

Before long though, the track narrowed and the understory grew thick, green & lush with ferns & spongy moss . The people thinned out too, a lot obviously just take a stroll from Rainbow Reach to get a small taste of NZ bush. I’m sure most wouldn’t have walked  far enough to see the beautiful ferns.

It was a thrill when I suddenly spied some flowers on a moss covered log & realised that they were our tiny native epiphytic orchid; Raupeka or Easter Orchid. As most New Zealanders will know, our native bush does not do large or flashy flowers they are mostly small & unobtrusive. This perfectly formed little beauty has the added advantage of a strong sickly sweet smell to attract attention. Cool!

Deep in the bush we came to the second swing bridge which crossed a small rocky stream bed. It was here that David decided to take a look at the water to see if there were any trout. I failed to notice that he had moved to the edge when I left the bridge after taking some photos. So for the next 40 minutes or so I raced through the bush trying to catch him up while he also pushed on hoping to catch me! Lesson learned- we need to communicate if either of us moves off the track. Needless to say we both had some choice words to say when we finally met up. After 40 minutes I realised that David just couldn’t have got that far ahead of me so I stopped and waited….and waited. Just as I was starting to worry, I heard him whistling for me. Although I didn’t know the whistle was for me! We also need to have a whistle tune that we recognise so I don't think some weirdo is approaching.

Needless to say the whole of Kepler Track could have heard us stomping down the boardwalk to the viewing platform over the wetlands and across Forest Burn.

By about now we were also starting to tire (after the mad dash) and we still had a few kilometres to walk. This cheeky little fantail (pīwakawaka) pushed us on flitting in and out of the trees as we walked by.

Along the way I found some unusual fungi to shoot, but nothing like the colours we saw in the Catlins. Finally we came to a fork in the track. One branch led to a day hut at Shallow Bay on Lake Manapouri, the other to the Moturau Hut still 20 minutes away. We had come so far I wasn’t about to turn around although my boots were starting to feel like lead weights.

Then without warning we broke out onto a clearing in front of the hut which was surrounded by people, inside and out! Kepler Track walkers that had arrived from the other direction and were staying the night at the hut. Some of the younger ones were playing a ball game, older ones were reading, others were sorting packs & airing bedding. And in amongst all this were hundreds, nay, thousands of vicious little sandflies! We had our lunch with us which we gulped down all the while swatting at sandflies and dancing about on one leg. We quickly threw everything into the pack, turned around and high-tailed it out of there. A very short and not so sweet visit! Even an invite from the DOC ranger to have a look round inside was turned down.

The view from the hut out over Lake Manapouri. At least on a hot day you could take a swim to cool down and get away from the pesky little buggers- the sandflies not the trampers.

The Kepler Track is also home to the Kepler Challenge, an annual running race that covers the whole 60 kilometres in less than five hours. While we were having our lunch on the hop a runner came in from the other direction calling out a greeting to the ranger. She filled up with water & was having a conversation with others while doing some stretching exercises when we left but it wasn’t too far down the track when we heard her footsteps approaching. We stepped aside as she ran past marveling at her sinewy leg muscles. She was in training for the Kepler Challenge and obviously covers the distance quite often. I was in awe.

It was a long slog home for us, towards the end you’re just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other and praying that around the next bend will be the car park. One benefit of a there & back track, you know roughly how close home is when you see some familar objects……like a rotten log where you took a photo of some fungi.

Back at Rainbow Reach as we crossed the bridge, we spotted a canoe & a kayak approaching. We waited to see them pass under the bridge & it was good to see kids out with their Dads having fun in the great outdoors.