Awa Awa Rata Reserve hike
I woke up feeling slightly better today after having been sick with a head cold for a few days. So naturally I decided to go on a solo hike in bad shoes. We had previously attempted to make it up to Mt. Hutt but didn't make it for various car battery and 5-year-old battery reasons. Today, child-free and fully charged, I made my way past the Rakaia river and up into the foothills.
It was a cloudy day, and I was getting excited that I might be able to get up into the mists.
From the DOC website: "[The track] passes through beech/tawhairauriki forest before climbing to alpine herb and tussock/wï communities". Apparently I was too busy taking selfies to fully capture the beech forest, but I assure you it was magnificent.
I did snap this picture of a higher-elevation beech community... very obvious is the sooty black mold on the trunks of the trees, which is, I learned later, part of a "honeydew system" where scale insects drink sap and secrete honeydew, which drips onto the tree, causing the sooty mold to grow. The mold feeds many forest insects and birds, and doesn't appear to harm the trees. Fascinating!
On the other side of the hill, there is a short side track that brings you out to Pudding Hill stream, where silvery-leafed trees and foxglove dot the marshy flats.
Spent a few contemplative moments on this rocky bank.
I didn't make it up to the tussocks - I was in sneakers and as a n00b I didn't want to push it. Next time I definitely want to make it up to the ski field road!
