Pukeone/Mt Campbell is at the northern end of the Wharepapa/Arthur Range that dominates the skyline in Motueka. Mt Campbell is 1330 metres high and hosts the local TV and radio transmitter. Yesterday (the 10th of April), it also hosted the first snowfall of the year.
Places
The bush around Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes National Park is typical South Island beech forest (Nothofagus species). A relaxing place for a day on the lake, even in the autumn. These hillsides won’t be showing autumn colours, New Zealand’s beech species are evergreen.
Sometimes all you’ll see of a kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus) is a flash of green-blue iridescence. The flash of colour shows up well on the browns and… browns of the Motueka estuary, but kingfisher can be harder to spot in foliage. They don’t like people approaching too closely.
Pied stilts (Himantopus himantopus leucocephalus) have very long legs. Not flamingo long, but longer than the legs of most wading birds with a body of comparable size found on New Zealand’s coasts and wetlands. Himantopus himantopus is found in warmer parts of the world and is called the black-winged stilt outside of New Zealand. New Zealand’s pied [...]
On the road from Takaka to Totaranui lies the small settlement of Pohara. Just past the Pohara Boat Club, the cement works and Port Tarakohe, the road passes through a tunnel in the rock. On the other side of the tunnel is Cathedral Rock, which is popular with rockclimbers. The bay on which Port Tarakohe sits [...]
Little Kaiteriteri beach is just south of the main Kaiteriteri beach and there’s a brief walk between the two that goes over a rocky hill, through some bush. The track was closed in February after ex-cyclone Fehi came through. This is the start of the track on the Little Kaiteriteri side just a couple of days after [...]
The top of the South Island is one of the main apple growing regions in New Zealand, and it’s hard to drive around Motueka without coming across an apple orchard. When harvested, apples are picked in passes, with only the most mature fruit picked at each pass. These apples, photographed in February, weren’t ready for [...]
This is the velvet bolete (Porphyrellus formosus) and I haven’t been able to find out much about it besides the fact that it has pores rather than gills; that’s the reason for the “bolete” part of its name. The colour of the cap is a dark black-brown that looks smooth and velvety.
The rifleman (Acanthisitta chloris) is one of New Zealand’s smallest birds. Weight-wise, it’s about the same as the grey warbler (6-7 grams), but lengthwise it’s definitely the smallest, at 8 cm compared to the grey warbler’s 11 cm. So… the rifleman packs as much weight into its 8 cm frame as the grey warbler does [...]
The town of Motueka is on the floodplain between the Motueka and Moutere rivers. The Motueka River empties into Tasman Bay north of the township in a classic delta/estuary system. Further south, the Moutere River forms a tidal estuary west of Jackett Island and empties into Tasman Bay near the Talley’s factory. Together, the Mouteka and [...]
