Down by the river, Kaituna Valley Scenic Reserve

Saturday's always a busy day at our place, usually with a heap of errands stacked up and ready to distribute. Today was no different, except that it included a few runs in to Tai Tapu to drop off my ride-on and pick up another hire lawn tractor.

Knowing that the rest of the day was going to be taken up mowing, I decided to pop into the scenic reserve on the way home to capture my blip.

The reserve is both wonderful and sad at the same time; it's got some wonderful trees -it's considered one of the the best examples of remnant lowland podocarp forest that once covered Banks Peninsula, and includes a significant stand of titoki-but the clearing of adjacent land for farming means that the river is now susceptible to flooding which in turn inundates the forest floor, thus stripping seed and seedlings before they get started. The effect is that the forest will remain a remnant as it is not in a position to repopulate the matai, kahikitea and totara, not unless the rest of the flood plain is returned to native vegetation that is.

This shot is taken on the river's edge looking through a maze of twisted m?hoe trunks. Whilst I was setting up the tripod I was entranced by the heavy wingbeats of Kereru; the native pigeons gorging themselves on the berries in the canopy.

It's a peaceful place to reconnect with nature, that's for sure.