TRIP REPORT : Christmas Trip – Mount Cook to Omarama and more

 27 December 2001 – 8 January 2002 :   Christmas Trip – Mount Cook to Omarama and more

This combined field trip for Wellington BotSoc and the Botanical Society of Otago included areas of interest in the southwest Canterbury, Mount Cook and associated lakes areas.   An unusual aspect of the trip was to move camp half way through to avoid driving long distances.   The first base was Lake View Homestay, Lake Pukaki; the second was Glen Mary Ski Club, Lake Ohau.   Both had good camping sites with wonderful views, inside accommodation and the necessary facilities.   The move from one to the other was not the bother we feared it might be, and the change of scene was stimulating.

Sites visited ranged from wetland to alpine, from dry riverbed to dripping beech forest.

Considering how the summer has been, we were blessed with good weather and three superb days in Mount Cook National Park

Participants: Ted Abraham, Beth Andrews, Barbara and Peter Beveridge, Robyn Bridges, Barbara Clark, Rosemary Collier, Gael Donaghy, Audrey Eagle, Chris Ecroyd, David and Karen Havell, Chris Horne, Ros Iles, Rick Jackson, Graeme Jane, Allison Knight, Rodney Lewington, Barbara Mitcalfe, Donella Moss, Ruth Peszynski, Frank Rogers, Emil Schmieg, Darea Sherratt, Barbara and Neill Simpson, Val Smith, Nola Walker, Bastow Wilson, Joyce Wilson.

The 33 members who took part made a great team, hard working, co-operative and friendly.   This contributed hugely to the success of the events.   Special thanks to Joyce Wilson, Alison Knight, Rodney Lewington, Graeme Jane, Gael Donaghy, Geoff Rogers, Pat Enright, Barbara Clark, Julia White.

The participants

28 Dec: Pukaki Scientific Reserve

Chosen for its easy access from camp on our first morning, this reserve proved to be a worthy starting point for botanising.

The reserve is fenced to exclude rabbits, and looked like it had been grazed tussock grassland in the past.   Nearest the road a thick cover of Hieracium was evident.   Keen eyes soon spotted little orchid seedheads emerging from this, and a grovel uncovered the rosettes of one of the small multiheaded Pterostylis orchid species.   Dissection of a shrivelled flower allowed it to be identified as Pterostylis mutica.   The rosettes of leaves were still green despite the fact that the seeds had been dispersed from many of the capsules.

Near the road there are small, seasonally wet areas which provide habitats for wetland species like Pratia perpusilla with its rumpled leaves and split flower, and Epilobium angustum, which also has distinctive rumpled, brownish leaves.   As we moved back from the road, the tussock grassland contained many more orchid plants, mostly Praesophyllum colensoi and the little Microtis oligantha, with its few-flowered spike.   By late morning it was warm enough for the white flowered sun orchid, Thelymitra longifolia, to be in flower.

Moraine with large rocks provided shelter and protection for shrubs and other plants.   Here the shrubs are dominated by Discaria toumatou, Aristotelia fruticosa, and Coprosma propinqua with some C. intertexta.   In the shelter of the rocks were interesting plants like the small renga renga lily (Arthropodium candidum), two Asplenium – tiny A. flabellifolium and the beautiful carrot fern (Asplenium richardii), the white-leaved herbaceous yellow daisy Brachyglottis haastii, and the spider orchid Corybas trilobus.   Perched in its usual habitat, the “hot rock fern” Cheilanthes humilis should not have been a surprise!

Those who took the long way back to the vehicles were rewarded with flowering plants of Hebe cupressoides, while those who took the more direct route had time to spend exploring the red tussock fringed wetlands.

Gael Donaghy

28 Dec: Wet grassland on Pukaki Downs Station

Plan A had been to botanise the Big Rock stream catchment in the afternoon.   But we ended up driving and walking across Pukaki Downs Station to botanise an area of low lying grassland, with a bit of bog surrounding a small alder-lined lake, the source of the Station’s water supply.

As we descended the last slope we had a close encounter with a magnificent solitary Aciphylla aurea, whose stems were heavily covered in seed.   On the same contour and similarly isolated, grew a specimen of Olearia virgata with a fragrance reminiscent of almonds.   With the benefit of hindsight, and Geoff Roger’s stunning talk, this may have been one of the few remaining shrub species purported to have originally covered this area.

The lower boggy flat, which had been grazed, was dominated by Juncus species and introduced grasses.   Interspersed were Oreobolus pectinatus, Drosera arcturi, Celmisia gracilenta, Epilobium “one of the 40”, Anistome imbricata, Gonocarpus sp, Gnaphalium traversii and Muehlenbeckia axillaris.

A foray to the lake edge found Carex secta, Phormium tenax and Chionochloa rubra.   On slightly less boggy ground we saw Ranunculus glabrifolius and Wahlenbergia.

On drier and much softer areas, especially in patches of full sun, a few wilting Botsocia sitzii and Botsocia prostrata were in evidence.   Well, it was the afternoon of the first day!

Our thanks to the Managers of Pukaki Downs Station for permission to botanise their land.

Robyn Bridges

29 Dec: Mount Sebastopol and Governor’s Bush

After visiting the information centre at Mount Cook Village, where we saw that the weather report was not very hopeful, we decided to botanise the ‘one hour’ track through Governor’s Bush.   It took us longer than the hour, as there was something for everyone.

We saw mosses, liverworts, ferns, Lagenifera, orchids, species of Dracophyllum and Gaultheria, cascading parahebe (Parahebe catarractae), and the ever-present Pratia.   An ascending track led us to an open area with views and then a winding track down again.   Distorted and over-large plants were seen at the edge of the track, where we surmised that DOC’s weed spraying had produced these aberrations, such as a triple headed Thelymitra.

The weather cleared enough for a walk up Mount Sebastopol.   A swing bridge over the river led to a steep track, with many deep steps that I found difficult, my hips complaining so much that I didn’t go far.   Others went to a saddle or a rewarding climb to see the top tarns.   A Japanese student from Palmerston North, keen to learn a little of our botany, accompanied us.

I had always admired the huge mountain Celmisias, so here was my chance to get a good photo.   Brachyglottis haastii (formerly Senecio), caught my eye, with its rosettes of white leaves, fur covered – but sometimes the fur had worn off the upper surface, showing a shining green surface.

An unusual lichen, Omphalina alpina, collected by Allison, was interesting because it is a basidiomycete, with a toad-stool-like fruiting body, unlike most other lichens that are ascomycetes.

Beth Andrews

30 Dec: Hooker Valley

What a wonderful setting for botanising!   We were thrilled to be among the ice-clad peaks, with avalanches thundering off Mount Sefton, and Aoraki / Mount Cook standing sentinel near the head of the valley, with its three peaks often free of cloud.   A glider slowly circling Sefton’s summit added to the magic of our day among a wonderful range of alpine plants.

We followed the valley track through forest remnants and over moraine deposits, where the dead-looking Helichrysum depressum featured, and past a rock face with the strap fern, Grammitis poeppigiana, to the second footbridge.   Here, thanks to advice from Jenny Christensen at Park Headquarters, we took the track towards Ball Pass.   We were delighted at the extensive areas of the large spaniards, Aciphylla aurea and A. scott-thomsonii.   some with inflorescences up to two metres tall.   They themselves were striking subjects for photographs, and also made marvellous foregrounds for shots of the great peaks.   Celmisia coriacea, with its large, stiff, grey-green leaves and showy white flowers, and C. verbascifolia, with purple-stalked leaves, were conspicuous, but the Mount Cook buttercup, Ranunculus lyallii, had almost finished flowering on the valley floor, so it was not until the following day above Sealy Tarns that we saw numerous examples of this handsome plant in flower.   Acaena saccaticupula’s crimson seedheads, Parahebe linariifolia in flower, the glaucous-leaved Dracophyllum kirkii, Hebe subalpina in flower, and the fern Asplenium trichomanes, were among the many other plants that attracted our attention.

Further up the valley, areas of Hebe macrantha in flower were particularly striking, as was evidence of the retreat of the Hooker Glacier, because Hooker lake is a relatively recent development, and Hooker Hut, perched high on the lateral moraine, is now hard to reach.   No doubt alpine plants will colonise the moraine deposits as they lose their cover of snow and ice.

Chris Horne

31 Dec: Kea Point and Tasman Glacier Moraine

Three kea calling overhead greeted the group of eight on the Kea Point Walk.   On this undemanding walk there was plenty of time to study the vegetation and the following were a few observations:

At the altitude of The Hermitage Podocarpus nivalis, snow totara, was massed with red fruit, whereas a few days earlier, high up on the Mt Sebastopol Track, it was still in full flower.   Spotted hiding in the undergrowth were the attractive bluish green, serrated leaves of Gingidia montana.   Some of the plants seen in flower were Parahebe decora, (with leaves as small as 1.5 – 3 mm), Geranium sessiliflorum, Wahlenbergia sp., Gaultheria crassa, Stellaria gracilenta and Leucopogon fraseri.

In the afternoon we visited the Tasman Glacier.   On the lateral moraine the Aciphylla aurea, spaniard or speargrass, were spectacular, they were in full flower and in every direction one looked were seen the raised, golden-stemmed spikes.   Plants of note on the terminal moraine were the green compressed mats of Raoulia australis sprinkled with their tiny yellow daisy flowers.   Even more curious were the numerous dead-looking twiggy branchlets of Helichrysum depressum; in this specialised stony habitat it was abundant.   It is a small rather flattened shrub but one bonsai-looking plant had a gnarled and twisted ‘trunk’ 20 cm high.

Audrey Eagle

1 Jan 2002: Lake Tekapo Turf Plants

On New Year’s day our botanising site was the sandy / silty flood plain of Lake Tekapo.   The lake is subject to a 10 m rise and fall, so the lacustrine flora has to adjust to periods of inundation and desiccation.   It was a classic “bums on high and lens to eye” occasion as we struggled to identify some cryptic species, ourselves closely observed by a pair of pohowera, (banded dotterel) nearby.   Leptinella maniototo was plentiful and Neopaxia sp. and Pratia perpusilla were both in flower.   A few dimple-leaved Epilobium komarovianum were flowering, also Raoulia sp., Carex berggrenii and Juncus antarcticus.   A little plant that puzzled us, until Neill identified it in the wetlands book as Crassula sinclairii with minute flowers.   Nearby in weedy pasture we found Glossostigma elatinoides, Parahebe lyallii, and the tiny, delicate, mauve-flowered P. canescens in flower and fruit.   A welcome distraction from this hands-and-knees prostration was the sight of five kakii, (black stilts), wading in the shallows.   (Whether the late, lamented Mrs Bones was was among them is not known).   Nearby on a bouldery slope were Convolvulus verecundus and some impenetrably dense cushions of Carmichaelia uniflora with fat, yellow, sigma-shaped pods bursting through their Phyllachne-like crowns – a strange sight.   After lunching in our vehicles because of heavy rain, some of us looked for more wetlands on the east side of Lake Ohau.   A chance conversation with an iterinerant [sic] musician on a bicycle, led to our creeping past about 50 caravans and tents (whose occupants were sleeping off their New Year’s Eve spent in Twizel), to explore another indigenous, lakeside turf.   This area of about 30 m × 20 m was weed-free and so densely vegetated that no soil was visible, however it did not yield any species additional to those which we had seen in the Tekapo turf.

Barbara Mitcalfe

1 Jan: Western Shore, Lake Tekapo

This unpromising-looking area of soft sediment lakeshore, that is sometimes covered with water, proved to have some interesting plants.   There are mats of the little Leptinella maniototo, a tiny Crassula, C. sinclairii that was in flower, the “tape measure plant” Lilaeopsis ruthiana and carpets of Neopaxia lineariifolia, with its pretty white flowers, with a pink stamen lying along each petal.   We searched for Glossostigma elatinoides flowers to show people how to trigger the irritable stigma, but there were very few out.   A small plant with a disproportionately large blue flower turned out to be Parahebe canescens.

Rain interrupted our botanising, but after a compulsory lunch break in the vehicles, we made a quick sortie to a wind-scoured area about 100 m from the lake.   Here there were several treasures including the unusual, dark green Raoulia monroi, with its fan-shaped arrangement of leaves.   Another treasure was the Convolvulus verecundus ssp. verecundus which has rosettes of grey / brown rabbit-dropping-shaped leaves that arise from a deeply buried runner!   The plants had flowered earlier, and there were many capsules blowing around in the wind.   Two other rewards for the plodding about in the rain were the tight cushions of the very hairy Pimelea pulvinaris, and the small broom, Carmichaelia nana.

Of interest here too were the bright yellow vagrant lichens, Chondropsis semiviridis – when the weather is dry they curl up and blow around.   When it rains, they flatten out against the ground and photosynthesise, until it again becomes too dry.

Gael Donaghy

2 Jan: Temple Stream Nature Walk

A blustery nor’wester with rain squalls brought in ‘shift day’, our move from Pukaki Downs to Glen Mary Ski Club Lodge, Lake Ohau.   By the time we packed up, cleaned up, stocked up at Twizel and settled down at Ohau much of the day had gone.   The nature walk at Temple Stream road end, at the head of Lake Ohau, proved an ideal end to the day.   The road ends at a patch of mature mountain beech where several large trees were laden with red mistletoe (Peraxilla tetrapetala) with the flower remains carpeting the ground.   Three tracks start from this picnic area, the North and South branches of Temple Stream, the latter with a “forest” of the rare and threatened, small tree, Pittosporum patulum at its head, and the nature walk.

The nature walk climbs through dry mountain beech forest briefly before zig-zagging up in fire-induced, open grassland with patchy forest showing good regeneration.   Numerous native herbs, orchids such as Aporostylis bifolia, and shrubs were found as we listened to the riroriro, a flock of chattering brown creepers and bellbirds, and swiped the numerous sandflies.   A falcon flew overhead, and large dragonflies whizzed about.

At the highpoint of the loop track there is the option of climbing directly uphill through steep Dracophyllum shrubland and beech forest for excellent views to the south.   Those who did this found many more plant species, some in flower, such as Celmisia sinclairii, C. verbascifolia, C. densiflora, Forstera sedifolia and yellow flowered Brachyglottis haastii.   The hebes, H. salicifolia, H. subalpina and H. buchananii, were present as was snow totara, Podocarpus nivalis, and many other shrubs.   It was a warm, balmy evening now and we were reluctant to leave this pleasant place.   The numerous mistletoe, some still in flower, were the most notable feature of the loop back through the forest to the vehicles.

Neill Simpson

3 Jan: Freehold Creek

On this moist but mild day, the trip began behind the Glen Mary Ski Club, where we walked along the track to Freehold Creek.   Hieracium dominated amongst the short grazed tussocks, while the monospecific endemic, dandelion-like Kirkianella novae-zelandiae was spotted on the track.   A little further on, in the turf beside a pond, we marvelled over the tiny fern, Ophioglossum coriaceum.

At the forest edge, we discussed identification of mountain beech, Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides, as some of the leaf-tips were rounded like black beech, Nothofagus solandri var. solandri.   Bright patches of forest floor were carpeted by petals of the red mistletoe, Peraxilla tetrapetala.   A few buds were left to tweak open as the birds do for pollination.   Also in flower were the orchids, Chiloglottis cornuta and Microtis oligantha.

Above the bushline, Hieracium was still evident, but there was much else of interest: Myrsine nummularia with purple berries that lizards like to eat; two whipcord hebes, H. hectorii and H. lycopodioides; yellow swathes of Bulbinella; many woolly-headed Craspedia; two Aciphylla – the golden A. aurea and the creamy-flowered A. “Lomond”, spiky false spaniard, Celmisia lyallii, with its tips nibbled by hares; and the yellow daisy, Dolichoglottis lyallii, crossing with the white D. scorzoneroides to give a cream-flowered hybrid.

Any lack of diversity in the vascular plants was more than made up for by the richness of the lichen flora on soil, rock and bark, inside the forest and out.   The white paint-like splashes of Lecanora farinacea stood out on the wet rocks above bushline.

Allison Knight

4 Jan: Ohau Ski Field

Twenty-two people went to Ohau Lodge to check whether the ski road was open to all vehicles and to collect the key.   Lake Ohau was choppy and a southerly was blowing but the sun was shining after heavy rain the previous day.   The rocky road up to the ski field was negotiable despite a few slips.   Alli’s car had a puncture but the tyre was quickly changed with all the help available.   Two passengers elected to walk the rest of the way to lighten the load.   They reached the top of the road soon after the cars by following a stream bed up the steep slope.

At the top we donned extra clothing to counter the cool breeze, then people scattered in all directions.   There was so much to see!   Many stayed on the lower slopes beyond the ski buildings for most of the morning, where there was a lot of marshy ground and a great variety of plant species.   Others climbed to the upper ridges to scree slopes, rocky outcrops and a hidden tarn.   Some of the upper slopes had been “groomed” for the ski operations.

Graeme Jane provided an extensive plant list.   Some of the plant highlights were additions to it.   Rick Jackson found Haastia sinclairii and Hebe epacridea.   Also found were a beautiful clump of Lobelia linnaeoides, on a barren ski run slope protected by a larger rock and Raoulia eximia, about a metre across.   Other favourites were Leucogenes grandiceps, Aciphylla dobsonii, penwipers on scree (Notothlaspi australe = N. rosulatum), Myosotis traversii in bud and flower and Myosotis “drucei”, with its panicled flower, by a group discussing its non-appearance when it was spotted at their feet near the hut.   We also saw alpine butterflies, grasshoppers and a South Island pipit.

Barbara Clark

6 Jan: Mackenzie Basin and Tekapo River Valley

Following his interesting talk the previous evening as part of the DOC Summer Programme, Geoff Rogers not only made suggestions for our last day, but also offered to show us something different – four very dry, degraded areas with shrubland restoration possibilities.

First, a terminal moraine site in the Pukaki Conservation Area, with a mixture of indigenous and exotic grasses still being grazed, and six species of shrubs: Carmichaelia petriei, Coprosma propinqua, Discaria toumatou, Melicytus alpinus, Muehlenbeckia complexa and, growing in its shelter and tightly interlaced with it, Sophora prostrata.   Seeing the prostrate kowhai in situ, with flower and seed, was a real highlight.   The shrubs all show resilience to the desiccating winds and low rainfall, and Geoff said the reserve is expected to recover.

We drove on to the featureless flats of the Mackenzie Basin, to an example of the ecological variability of the Tekapo dendritic (branching) drainage system.   With a fall of only 1 – 1.5°, the land is a series of dry interfluves and shallow, slightly damper channels.   Within the rabbit-infested Hieracium and hard tussock “pasture” have been found several threatened plants.

Dedicated searching of the channels eventually located a few tiny spreading plants of Leptinella “Clutha”, previously known only from Pisa Flat in Central Otago.   An earlier find of the slightly larger, denser, silkier and generally more attractive L. serrulata probably helped us get an eye in for the smaller plant.   Other plants of interest in the arid conditions were Acaena buchananii, with variable green or glaucous foliage and red sessile fruiting heads, small bronze mounds of Scleranthus uniflorus, Pimelea pulvinaris and three species of Raoulia – R. parkii, R. australis and R. tenuicaulis.   The finding of a Helichrysum species not seen there before created a minor flurry of excitement so we took a GPS reading of its location.

A little further along the road on the same property, we were shown an exclosure plot, one of ten set up ten years ago by DOC in different parts of the Mackenzie Basin.   Regular monitoring has seen little noticeable difference in plant recovery within the plot so far.   However, Graeme did note within it, three shrub species not seen on the still-grazed area outside.

The last study site was along the Bullock Wagon Trail and the hydro canal to the terraces and bed of the Tekapo River.   The braided riverbed yielded mainly exotics, but amongst them were brilliant reddish-purple berries of Coprosma atropurpurea.   The dry, stony slope above was probably disturbed by hydro works in the past, and was sparsely vegetated, but keen eyes found tough and resilient Carmichaelia nana and C. vexillata, Muehlenbeckia ephedroides, grey rosettes of Convolvulus verecundus ssp. verecundus, woolly-looking Pimelea sericovillosa, muddy brownish-grey Lepidium sisymbrioides ssp. sisymbrioides and more L. “Clutha”.

An interesting and thought-provoking day to end this year’s New Year Field Trip.

Val Smith