DEC IST LAKE DAY Just as we arrived at Lake Ngunguru last Monday, Wendy and Carl came down from their home above with ride on mower and weed eater and swiftly made the dam like a lounge carpet. Carl told us his overseas friends, on seeing the forest lake, remarked with amazement: This is like a Hollywood filmset! We all watched a pigeon feeding among mangrove foliage. I showed Carl the new matai along the new Ross/Janet track, (a name?)* where Jan got pix of its foliage and wisps of its wispy juvenile leaves and its bark. On our computer the pigeon drinking/reflection pix from our last visit had revealed mairehau foliage and blooms in the background, along the lake edge. Unbelievable! Now Jan ground tested it while, from the dam edge, I took pix of her at its base, to show its location. Lovely snowy flowers and new green berries. This is the highest mairehau we have seen. About 16 feet, tall and slim, squeezed upward by the dense surrounding growth. And it has a long flowering time, like its citrus relies . About two months now for those around here. This nw corner of the lake has so many unusual and attractive trees , all crammed together: Dracophyllum, Corokia buddleoides, Pittos umbellatum, and so on, among kauri and kowhai and... Sitting quietly for a few hours, we found the bird life mid-afternoon resumed its normal activity and we heard so many different songs and saw so many lake flights. Ten mallards cruising at the upper end, didnt fly away as is usual. Birdlife has become much richer with pest control and I tried to capture atmospherics: snatches of lake music on video , over the constant chuckle of the outlet pool, but really need a day with no wind gusts. With no rain for some time, this area will become a magnet for insects and other life. An oasis. So nice to have a comfy seat there and a green carpet. Neighbourpower! We occupied our time zooming on the lake surface as damselflies settled on lily leaves, buzzed over by sentinel dragonflies like mini choppers and we looked down through the water with our lenses at weed glades and water boatmen, in hope of another fish, since the new bully species we saw with Ian. When we left, our baited fish trap lay on the lake floor. Where we park our car the kanuka is a mass of flowers and black native bees galore. As manuka ends its blooming, out comes the kanuka with its myriad smaller flowers and tinier leaves. Some years its canopy can be as white as snow. Some time soon the big northern rata tree nearby may bloom, but this is variable. *I have a fine old 1837 British navy hydrographic map, first of district, made during the HMS Buffalo 5 month kauri mast gathering expedition, that shows a circle along this path where the sailors set up a mast camp with tents. Will there be any relicts there now we can access it readily? The valley would have been an access way from river to forest. I have diaries of two of the supervisors.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 00:08:25 +0000
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