An Autumn Trip into the Raukumara
Given that I hadn't been into the forest for some time and had only spent 8 hours in Oronui a few weeks prior to this trip, I had very little idea of what to expect from the flora and fauna. Sure I suspected all the usual plant and bird species would be present but I wanted to have a better, slower look around at the smaller things that typically I might walk past when out doing my 'normal' job.
So with that in mind and knowing we were spending a week in the area, I knew there would be time to set the waxtags, establish the RTI lines and cut open the tracks as well as gather as much information and take as many photographs as possible.
The result was, 110 plant species identified in the field (with those I didn't or couldn't identify photographed for later), 11 bird species and 2000 photos taken...a small amount compared to my usual.
It didn't help my documenting that I grabbed the wrong books, left the fern and subalpine/ alpine books at home and that I hadn't replaced my 'good' cellphone that I had dropped in water a few weeks back. Which left me with a camera typically too heavy to carry around, a phone camera that was low in quality and slow to take photos and books that didn't adequately cover the spread of fauna that I was seeing.
Luckily we have one more trip coming up into the area before winter truly sets in, so I have a second chance to properly photograph what I missed, what I overlooked and what hadn't photographed well the first time.
Highlights from the trip included Pseudopanax laetus, Ophioglossum coriaceum and Sophora microphylla. All of which were a bit of a surprise to see and two of which I had never seen out in the field previously.
I only covered 30km this trip, with plans to cover more area next trip and to climb higher in elevation to reach the stunted forests growing on rocky outcrops on the side of Whanokao and to see what can be found there.