TRIP REPORT : Christmas Trip - West Coast and Murchison

 31 December 2003 – 11 January 2004 :   Christmas Trip – West Coast and Murchison

What a wonderfully varied trip we had, botanising in wetlands, beech forests, coastal forest, and on open tops!   A New Year’s trip in the great BotSoc tradition.

We had two base camps: six days at Riccarton High School’s Kokiri Lodge, near Stillwater, then six days at Nelson College’s Mataki Lodge near Nelson Lakes National Park.   Both are excellent facilities.

We thank:

• Barbara Clark for booking the former, and Chris Horne for booking the latter;
• Graeme Jane and Gael Donaghy for providing supplies of plant lists for six trips;
• Phil Knightsbridge and Kelly Stevens, DOC West Coast Tai Poutini, for advice, and DOC Greymouth for the key to the Sewell Peak road gate;
• Shannel Courtney, Jazz Scott and Simon Moore, DOC Nelson / Marlborough for advice;
• Gordon Leary and Sheelagh Leary for planning excellent meals;
• Rodney Lewington for managing the accounts;
• Chris Horne for co-ordinating the day trip programme;
• Noel Hardie and Rachel McGillivray, and Peter and Diane Oxnam for permission to botanise their wetlands;
• Hughie for providing good weather, and only one impressive storm;
• Everyone in the party for making the trip a success, botanically and socially.

The Committee

1 Jan: Sewell Peak to Mt Davy, Paparoa Range, map K31

A fine day and a sealed road to the top of Sewell Peak, 831 m, set the scene for our first day botanising.   Our usual goal of investigating the plant life was made more interesting when we realised that a suite of usual alpines was absent owing to the infertile soils derived from the sedimentary rock.

There was a wide range of shrubs in the beech forest and alpine scrub.   Pimelea longifolia was in flower.   Pseudopanax linearis and Olearia lacunose provided good examples of convergent evolution in different families.   Pink pine / Halocarpus biformis, yellow silver pine / Lepidothamnus intermedius and bog pine / Halocarpus bidwillii were difficult to identify, and the specimens collected helped us to learn about these similar looking plants.

In wet areas the little mossy cushions were the sedges Centrolepis ciliate and Gaimardia setacea, both in flower.   The tiny Euphrasia disperma, with its long corolla, was also in flower.   A small rosette plant with strap leaves proved to be Liparophyllum gunni when we found a flower – a plant that many of us had never even heard of.   The large shiny-leaved Ourisia Macrophylla had a few flowers.

After lunch we searched the rocky pavement and found the tiny carrot, Actinotus navaezelandiae, in flower.

Many of the ubiquitous alpine plant groups were missing, such as buttercups (Ranunculus species) and Spaniards (Aciphylla species), and usual alpines such as Caladenia lyallii and Leucopogon fraseri.   The only Hebe we saw was straggly H. pauciramosa in the wet areas, and the occasional plant of a few other species.

Gael Donaghy and Graeme Jane

2 Jan: Mt Te Kinga, map K32

It was a cloudless day as we left the cars at the side of Lake Brunner at the start of the new DOC track.   The climb is from 80 m to 1204 m – so some of the party botanised the Rakaitane   Walk in magnificent podocarp forest, and Velenski Walk, near the lake, while the others climbed the new track.

Botanising up the track above the lake, the regenerating bush with kamahi and wheki became more mature, with some emergent podocarps.   Then we climbed on a well cut, if sometimes muddy track, through quintinnia, kamahi, rimu, kahikatea and matai.   As we climbed, southern rata appeared in the canopy, then NZ cedar / Libocedrus bidwillii, many with skirts of Hymenophyllum malingii.   Just above the bushline this gave way to a dwarf forest of bog pine / Halocarpus bidwilii and Dracophyllum uniflorum.   Te Kinga is noted as the southern limit of carpet grass / Chionochloa australis.

Throughout this range of forest types, the notable omissions were palatable shrubs such as Pseudopanax species, and pate, and the abundance of mountain horopito.   Obviously goats, possums, and possibly deer, have taken their toll.   The other notable absentee is beech / Nothofagus.   The slightly drier climate than the surrounding ranges, geology, and possibly the barrier of the nearby water and marshland were suggested as reasons for this absence.

Trichomanes strictum attracted our attention.   Generally regarded as rare, we were to see this filmy fern here and at almost every other location we visited during the field trip.

Rodney Lewington

3 Jan: Point Elizabeth Walkway, map J31

After the first two strenuous days, we appreciated this gentle track between Cobden and Rapahoe which follows pack routes and water races dating back to the 1860s.   We quickly spread out.   Some patiently recorded the many weed species near the start of the track, while others enjoyed the stunted coastal forest and coastal scenery.

Botanical delights included vegetable caterpillars (Cordyceps), extensive groundcover of Corybas orchids, and some plants of Gahnia xanthocarpa almost 5 m tall.   A useful learning opportunity came in a moist side gully when someone was able to explain that the long, hair-like stipules meant that the small tree was hutu / Ascarina lucida, not pukatea.   Flowering Hebe elliptica among tall flax not far from the point made an attractive setting for lunch.

The track then veered inland, and the forest became taller with many nikau and tall podocarps – miro, kahikatea, totara and rimu.   A spectacular northern rata added a splash of colour.   Once again we found Trichomanes strictum, suggesting that this plant is still widespread in this part of the country.   BotSoc managed to spend over six hours along this track, much longer than the three and a half hours suggested in the leaflet.

Bev Abbott

4 Jan: (1) Croesus Track, Paparoa Range, map K31

In beautiful weather, we climbed a well-graded, benched track through mixed beech and broadleaf forest.   Early on, we saw a tiny Epacris alpine, displaying brilliant orange flowers, perhaps the result of growing in highly mineralised soil.   Trackside, there were abundant Trichomanes strictum, Leptopteris superba x L. hymenophylloides and Blechnum nigrum which is not common in Wellington except in dimly lit, wet sites.   New to many of us, was Hymenophyllum rufescens, a hairy, long-legged, higher altitude fern which apparently intergrades with Hymenophyllum flabellatum.   Several people were intrigued by the varied shade forms of the aptly named shrub Raukaua anomalus.   Later we came to an old hut with an earth floor and sacking bunks.   Outside were thickets of coppery Coprosma rugosa.   An old mining site with a huge stamper and various abandoned gears provided an adventure playground for our small group, and soon the welkin rang with a cacophony of giant percussion instruments.   The resident kakas were not impressed.

Barbara Mitcalfe.

4 Jan: (2) Otira Track

This party of five was keen to see alpine plants, and though most of us were not experts, Ted excepted, we felt that taking four hours to botanise a two hour track proved our interest.   We consulted books, and argued in the proper BotSoc manner.   Mount Cook lilies were in full bloom, and big celmisias with wide, grey leaves, Gingidia Montana, anisotomes, yellow and white snow marguerites were conspicuous, as were pigmy pine, snow totara, bog pine and some mountain toatoa.   We were delighted by Clematis marata with its cream flowers and sweet scent, and rejoiced in Forstera sedifolia,wahlenbergias, Celmisia incana, Geranium microphyllum, Geum.parviflorum, odd-leaved orchid / Aporostylis bifolia, Caladenia lyallii, Waiarea stenopetala, and the sundew, Drosera arcturii.

Despite a broken ignition key, and a two-hour wait for the AA in warm sunshine, we had an interesting and constructive day.

Rae Collins

5 Jan: (1) Noel Hardie’s and Rachel McGillivray’s Bog, Kokiri, map K32

Bright red Trentepolia alga covered the wayside rocks at the start of our walk, and a variety of lichens encrusted the old silver pine fence posts and battens – all neatly stacked ready to be transported for landscaping.   We followed a drainage ditch between rows of Pinus radiate, past two particularly large clumps of Gahnia rigida, Neomyrtus pedunculata in flower and the weed Rubus laciniatus / cut-leaved blackberry.

The vegetation changed dramatically when we reached the natural, undrained swamp forest where we saw the first of the native pines, Manoao Colensoi / silver pine.   These are tall trees with a distinct, linear, juvenile foliage.   Two cedars; Libocedrus bidwillii and L.plumosa occurred further into the forest, and Phyllocladus alpinus / mountain toatoa seedlings were common along the track.

A few botanical highlights were: white, bell-shaped Luzuriaga parviflora flowers; Hymenophyllum malingii, a distinctive grey-brown filmy fern growing on cedars; pokaka seedlings; the fine-leaved, sprawling Dracophylum palustre; Leptopteris superba / Prince of Wales’ fern; Libocedrus bidwillii / NZ cedar; and Owen spotting stoat prints in the mud.

This was an interesting area to botanise, and it is good to know that the owners value their wetland.

Moira Parker

5 Jan: (2) Goldsborough Track, map J32

Thirteen of us, including our oldest member, walked this ridge-top track that winds illogically across spurs and unnatural banks.   It is an old track made by gold miners who built dams and water races for sluicing.

There were some original trees, but even those that have grown since the miners left are a good size.   It is a wonderfully wet and densely green place.   Rodney said that the only other colour on the whole trip was the liverwort, Bazania rosea.   Near the beginning of the track we saw narrow-leaved mahoe / Melicytus lanceolatus, a Myosotis which we could not name, and the orchid, Caladenia lyallii.   Further along we found fork fern / Tmesipteris sp, Gahnia pauciflora, the giant moss, Dawsonia superba, the club mosses, Lycopodium volubile, L. fasciculatum and L. scariosum, and the orchid, Corybas oblongus.   Ferns we saw included Trichomanes strictum, Leptopteris superba, Hymenophyllum dilatatum and Blechnum vulcanicum.   Rimu and Hall’s totara were impressive.

We enjoyed listening to a flock of about eight bellbirds high in the canopy.   We also heard a kakariki, and had the company of a black fantail for part of the trip.   Several of us saw four robust goats, and the rest of us smelt them!

Sheelagh Leary

6 Jan: Charleston, map K29

En route from Kokiri Lodge to Mataki Lodge, we travelled the scenic coastal route, admired the wonderful flowering of the big rata trees, stopping at Punakaiki for some essential sustenance and a walk to the blowholes, then visiting the Shetlanders’ graves in the Charleston Cemetery.

The narrow entrance to Joyce Bay, and the surf coming through it, made an attractive setting for our inspection of the coastal turf communities, and coastal flaxlands.   Shore lobelia / Lobelia anceps was in full, beautiful, blue bloom, and shore spleenwort / Asplenium obtusatum sheltered in crannies in the rocks.

7 Jan: Jameson Track – Mole Stream, map M30

Red tussock and tarn, Jameson Track, Matakitaki Valley. Photo: Barbara Mitcalfe.

This trip climbed to the Mole Tops through lovely silver beech forest.   We saw a Gastrodia cunninghamii over 1 m tall, and occasional clearings with red tussock / Chionochloa rubra. Beyond the bushline, the tarns, tussocks and tops were a lovely sight, while down near the hut we saw spaniards with flowers about 2 m tall.   The vegetation along the bush tracks, then down the bouldery river bed, gave us a good idea of this conservation land which borders Nelson Lakes National Park.

Chris Horne

8 Jan: Oxnam’s Bog, map M30

This covenanted bog is immediately north of Mataki Lodge.   On an overcast morning, with permission of Peter and Diane Oxnam, fifteen of us climbed the impressive nine-strand fence to study this important site.

The 1 ha bog lies on a gentle slope, facing east.   It is covered with two species of Sphagnum moss, and dotted with bog pine / Halocarpus bidwillii, and manuka.   Many little bog plants were in flower, including two sundews / Drosera spp, odd-leaved orchid / Aporostylis bifolia, and Utricularia delicatula.

The introduced rush, Juncus effuses, seen above the bushline the previous day, has also arrived in Oxnam’s Bog.   Young silver birches and rosehip have self-sown in the bog and should be removed.

After a short exploration, we all felt concerned about the long-term damage our boots could be doing, so retreated to the lodge.   Our overall impression was that the bog was an important and well fenced covenant

Julia Stace

Participants: Bev Abbott, Ted Abraham, Margaret Aitken, Barbara Clark, Rae Collins, Gael Donaghy, Chris Horne, Graeme Jane, Allison Knight, Gordon Leary, Sheelagh Leary, Rodney Lewington, Roger Makepeace, Cath Mathews, Barbara Mitcalfe, Donella Moss, Moira Parker, Monica Peters, Dan Post, Judy Russell, Darea Sherratt, Sunita Singh, Jeanette Skinner, Val Smith, Owen Spearpoint, Julia Stace, Beryl Tuppen, Nola Walker, Philippa Wilson.