TRIP REPORT : Eastern Hutt River

 Saturday :   5 April 2008

On an overcast morning, with southerlies and rain forecast, we met at the Ranger’s house, Kaitoke Regional Park, and were then driven over the 4wd road to the Eastern Hutt, arriving at 9.45 a.m.

We botanised two areas.   The first was the river terraces on the True Left bank.   They support mature podocarp / hardwood forest.   Mature matai was the most common podocarp, with Nestegis spp. common in the canopy.   Another feature was a small pond and wetland containing Potamogeton suboblongus and Eleocharis acuta.   We had lunch in a grove of rimu, 1 km upstream from the vehicles.   Plants of note were a 2-metre long Huperzia varia, Raukaua edgerleyi and a mature white maire.   We saw numerous titoki saplings, testimony to the mild climate on that side of the river.   Also of note was the almost complete absence of beech spp.   The area shows signs of recovery from deer browse, with palatable species such as karamu present in the understory.

After lunch, and still no rain, except for a few spits, we crossed the swingbridge to botanise the terraces on the True Right.   This forest is different – it contains a larger component of beech spp., with red, silver and black beech present, indicating a cooler climate.   We went down stream from the bridge to the sign, then upstream from the bridge along the track.   At the sign, we saw mountain toatoa / Phyllocladus alpinus, uncommon in the valley.   Other highlights were Ourisia lactea var. drucei and Parahebe lanceolata (uncommon).   Several of the smaller shrub species were fruiting well; e.g. Melicope simplex, Coprosma grandifolia and Alseuosmia pusilla.   The number of fruit on the Alseuosmia, up to ten on some plants, and the size of the fruit, made it one of the features of the day.   Thanks to everyone for a great day, the drivers, and Huey for no wet stuff.   We added twenty-three species to the plant list.

Participants :   Gavin Dench, Barry Dent, Pat Enright, Glenys Evans, Sue Freitag, Chris Horne, Sheelagh Leary, Rodney Lewington, Barbara Mitcalfe, Mick Parsons, Sunita Singh, Owen Spearpoint (leader / scribe), Julia White.