Te Anau

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Went with Clare, Phil and Laura to Te Anua, Clare’s car is properly broken, not fixable. She now has to hitch. Laura was nice enough to give all three of us a lift. It’s a familiar story shared by backpackers around the world.

Stayed in the Barnyard backpackers, we have a small cottage with a marvellous view. It’s very open plan, kitchen, sitting, dining rooms and six beds all in the same room. The view looks out across farmland, and over to mountains. Deer in the field in front of the cottage bray at sunset and dawn.

Went on an ecology walk into a wilderness scientific reserve near Te Anua. Professor Allan Mark explained the history of the wilderness, the roles of the moss, bog pine and the problem of yet more introduced species. This time the culprit is introduced heather. The heather out competes all of the native species of alpine and shrubby plants, to try and maintain the wilderness in the state that it has existed for around 8000 years we helped pull out the heather that we found. In the UK it is the heather that has to be protected, out competed by introduced grasses.

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Photos

Wilderness
Bog Pine and Grey Moss