Tuateawa Christmas.

Despite a few recent setbacks the magic of Tuateawa continues. If you haven't visited for a while you will notice signs of our most recent major weather event. New slips and debris at what seem to be impossible heights on some fence lines.

The roading people deserve real praise. In some places, like the Tuateawa hill, the gutters were eroded down to the level of the fibre optic and electric cable. As of last weekend the roads and gutters were largely restored back to their normal condition. Some of the minor roads were still requiring some attention and one part, on the way to Waikawau, could need more than a quick fix up.

The silver lining to this event is the large quantity of roading metal that is to be found deposited hither and thither. Quite useful for establishing a few paths about your property. Some is fairly close to building mix standard! The pools on the Waiherere Stream have also been cleaned out, maybe even enlarged. They could be very tempting over an hot Tuateawa Xmas.

In the bird world the storm could have passed unnoticed. Seeing thirteen kaka in the air at the same time exceeds our earlier record of nine. They must be enjoying a good breeding season. At Waikawau breeding success for the NZ Dotterel is, perhaps, yet to come.

HAPPY TUATEAWA CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Hot Smoked Manuka Chicken.

If you cannot catch fish but like smoked food there are at least two alternatives. If it is fish you like you just cannot avoid a visit to the Coromandel Smoke House. Great taste and terrific variety. If you like smoked chicken, or even sausage you can make your own, and, you don't need to buy an expensive smoker. Why would you if you can't catch fish?

All you need are a few bits of redundant kitchen equipment. Start with an old wok or a wok frypan without it's handle, (they often unscrew, if not a more drastic approach is needed!). Add to this an old sandwich cake baking tin, a circular cake cooler, some manuka chips or sawdust, wide aluminium foil and you are in business.

The supermarket has a big variety of marinated fresh chicken you can smoke or you can marinate your own. Whichever approach you choose it helps to split the chicken. Rest a chicken, back down, on a chopping board and insert an heavy knife through the neck opening and out the other end. A downward rocking pressure from both hands will split the chicken and it can be opened out flat and marinaded.

This simple marinade works well. Just mix

2 tspn brown sugar

2tspn crushed garlic

2 Tblspn light soy sauuce

Rub all over both sides of split chicken(or you can use breasts bone in or out but you need skin on to prevent drying out)

To smoke the bird 1) put an handful of manuka chips on the bottom of the wok

2) put the cake tin, to catch the cooking juices, on

3) put the cake rack on the tin and put the flat chicken, skin side down, on it

4)Seal the bird in the wok with silver foil.

5)Pre heat your oven to 200 C.

6)Place the wok on a hot element and move it around until a little smoke starts to escape the foil. Reduce the heat and continue to smoke for ten minutes.

7)Put the wok into the preheated oven and continue the cooking for 25 minutes. Stand for 20 minutes, don't remove foil.When the wok has cooled remove the chicken and organise your partner to clean up the mess! The result is really worth the effort!

TUATEAWA PLANT SPOT: MANUKA AND KANUKA 2.

In 1773 Captain Cook and his sailors had their first taste of Spruce Beer, NZ style! Made by fermenting a mix of molasses, hops and water, it brewed in under a week. The only variable was the anti scurvy ingredient. In the northern hemisphere spruce was used but in NZ manuka and rimu vegetation was added as the vitamin C. source. It must have been a decent drop because, in 2003, a micro brewery, The Wigram Brewing Company, revived the recipe and have had good success with their product in national competitions.

Both plants are pioneer species and before the arrival of man would have been fairly scarce occupying open ground like slips and eroded river banks. First the Polynesians and later the Europeans, by their agricultural practices, created lots of open habitats for these plants. Controlling regrowth in pastures became a major problem and both species came to be regarded as weeds. Help seemed to be at hand in the mid 1930's. Areas of Manuka in Geraldine were found to be dying at an increasing rate.The dying Manuka were heavily infested with sap sucking insects that had, somehow, arrived from Australia. Lacking any of their native predators, and, with a lot of help from commercial and farming interests the scale insect was established country wide by the mid 1950's. It all looked good for the farming community until a fungal parasite of the scale insect also arrived. Now little trace of that original scale insect can be found and the populations of both Manuka and Kanuka are as vigorous as ever they were.

Another Australian scale insect is now found on our plants, but it is relatively harmless. On a sunny day you can glimpse the translucent threads of the insect's honey dew shining in the canopy. Tuis and bellbirds are often seen feeding on these in the newer growth of both plants. What is not consumed becomes food for the fire damp fungus which covers the branches of so many of the Manuka trees with a grimy black deposit.

In Tuateawa many of us live amongst the Manuka and Kanuka.They have taken over much of the old farm land. Fire risk, rather than fireblight, occupies our thoughts. Both of these species contain quantities of dead and finely divided combustible material in their crowns. The timber has less moisture than most native species and the leaves contain an highly volatile and combustible oil. On a fire risk scale running from 1 to 10 both species have values of 9 to 10. This is equivalent to eucalypts. To add further perspective, pine plantations have a risk factor of 6. Best of all, at 1 is the native fuchsia. At any time in the dry period a bush fire is a possibility. It has almost become accepted practice for car thieves to burn their ride when they are finished and fireworks pose their own problems. It doesn't pay to be complacent but, in our time, there have been no serious fires. This says a lot for the awareness of Tuateawans.

In their own way Manuka/Kanuka are as pivotal in the regeneration of our bush as the kereru. By their presence they improve the environment. Wind and temperatures are moderated, the soil is contributed to and it's moisture content held for longer in the dry times. In their shelter the fore runners of the bush; pepper tree, native privet and whitey wood, to mention a few, can become established. Eventually the sheltering Kanuka/Manuka will be overtopped by the larger trees of the bush. The timescale for complete regeneration is hard to imagine. But, in some well soiled road cuttings, thirty years has seen these pioneer species much reduced in significance. Wind and wetas have contributed to their decline and they are not being replaced by younger plants from ground level. The pioneers have served their time.

TUATEAWA PLANT SPOT: MANUKA AND KANUKA 1

If you need a source of fuel, enjoy smoked food or love honey then these plants are for you. As an householder your views would be moderated by the fire risk they pose. As an environmentalist with a longer term view you could consider them as nurse plants with the important role of delivering native bush from the farm land of the past.

Manuka Kanuka

Superficially the two species are quite similar. They both belong to the Myrtle family as does our pohutakawa. Their differences are sufficient to put them into different genera.

MANUKA is Leptospermum scoparium and KANUKA is Kunzea ericoides.

Kanuka Manuka

They are both flowering at the moment which helps to tell them apart. Manuka has bigger flowers but short stamens. In Kanuka the stamens extend out beyond the petals. Manuka also retains the last years seed pods. They are quite large and woody, though in Kanuka they are small, softish and less persistent.

There is also a size differential. Anything over 5m. is probably a Kanuka. In the absence of flowers the touch test works well. If you grasp a branch and it is a bit prickly it will be a Manuka as Kanuka is quite soft to the touch.

Tara on the coast north of Thames

TUATEAWA BIRD SPOT: TARANUI, THE CASPIAN TERN.

Weighing in at around 700g. and with a wingspan of 1.4m. this is biggest member of the tern family. It is mostly coastal and can take fish, like flounder or yellow eyed mullet, up to a length of 25cm.

It is not a common species but it is also not endangered. There are believed to be 50,000 pairs worldwide and 1,000 of these pairs are found in NZ. They are not gregarious, apart from when nesting. This pair were seen on the Tuateawa shore but there is usually at least one pair on Waikawau beach. There is reported to be a breeding colony at Whangapoua.

The tern that we see most often is the White Fronted Tern or Tara. It is much lighter at 160g. and is very gregarious when feeding and breeding. They seem to appear from nowhere when a school of fish is forced to the surface by the larger ones down below. Like all the terns they are very agile fliers and can pick small fish from the surface or just below it. The Taranui is sometimes known as the swallow of the sea because of it's agility but its a name that seems to suit all of the terns.

Flowering now!

This magnificent pohutakawa is in full bloom on the slopes of Whanake. The image would have been better but Sunday was a day of variable weather! Elsewhere the pohutakawas were just starting to bloom, to celebrate the beginning of Coromandel's Pohutakawa Festival.

Down on the Tuateawa shore, protected by overhanging pohutakawa, the rengarenga lilies were also in full bloom. It is very pleasing to see the number of young seedlings growing at their base.

1080

There are 214 pages in the Environmental Risk Management Authority (E.R.M.A.) report of 2007 in relation to the use of 1080 in NZ. It is available online. I cannot lay claim to having read every page but it does come across as a document of integrity. The inquiry was a lengthy procedure and involved many submissions. Concerns covered a range of issues, ecosystem degradation, protection of endangered species, human health , animal welfare, death of game animals such as deer and pigs, consultation processes in relation to aerial drops, T.B. control and many others. The overall impression is of individuals and groups putting forward well researched points with a sincere desire to be certain that the hearing was well informed.

E.R.M.A. has the responsibility of evaluating these conflicting viewpoints to produce an overall resolution. Evaluation seems to involve identifying both positive and negative effects of 1080 on the basis of evidence submitted. The effects themselves are quantified verbally on a scale that ranges from a MASSIVE effect down to a MINIMAL effect. As an example, it was determined that no longer being able to use 1080 would have a MASSIVE negative effect in terms of ecosystem degradation. It is really worth looking at the tables in the report where these findings are presented as it is the real nub of the whole issue.

The E.R.M.A. determination was positive in terms of 1080, but it did make the reservation that it was also a necessary evil. It recommended that research be carried out into finding an alternative and also suggested other areas, such as health impacts, where there was a lack of information. It noted a majority concern with the aerial dropping of 1080 but also, repeatedly, made the point that, without it, ground baiting would be much less effective and outcomes would be more negative.

E.R.M.A. is a regulatory body and, in it's findings, considerably tightened up on 1080 application, particularly with respect to the aerial method. These regulations apply not only to D.O.C. but also to anyone else involved in the use of 1080, like regional councils. It has now assumed a monitoring role over all aerial applications and requires a report, subsequent to completion, on all aspects.

In Tuateawa we enjoy the increasing benefits that arise from local conservation efforts. The work of Habitat Tuateawa and M.E.G. are well backed up by D.O.C. drops of 1080 in the larger

areas that surround us. The thought of them going into reverse due to the lack of 1080 is hard to contemplate.

1080 made it possible for us to have robins on the Peninsula!

There should always be debate on these issues. New information comes to hand which might modify our views. Circumstances could arise to make us less dependent on 1080. The recent Poison Free Campaign has made a few good points but has disappointed by not sticking to the issues, preferring to question the sincerity of D.O.C. and also E.R.M.A. "Playing the man rather than the ball" is not a good look. They need to check their facts a little more closely. One member claimed that the recent death of dogs on Auckland beaches was caused by 1080. The independent Cawthron Institute was able to identify the poison as originating in sea slugs washed up on the beaches. There are other dubious statements. If credibility is to be questioned Poison Free should look a little closer to home. If they shape up and do their homework they may be able to make a real contribution.

COROMANDEL, how it got its name.

Around 300B.C. Alexander the Great was conquering much of the known world including a part of northern India. At the same time in India's south, a new dynasty, the Cholas, was establishing itself. It was a Tamil speaking Hindu kingdom that lasted well into the 13th Century. At it's height it encompassed some 3.6 million sq. km.

The world took a few turns and western traders established themselves on the Indian coast. In time the English East India Company controlled, and virtually ruled, the subcontinent. The Portugese, though, were some of the first on the scene. They translated the Tamil for Land Of The Cholas as CHOLAMANDALUM. To the English, further translation made this into the Coromandel Coast. Most recently we have become aware of this region when it was devastated by the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004.

The vessel we know as H.M.S.S. Coromandel was built in India from teak timber in Calcutta by the East India Company. They used it to transport their troops and at that stage it was known as the Cuvera. It became H.M.S Malabar in 1804 when it was bought up by the British Admiralty. It was refitted and mounted 56 guns but it never saw battle. In 1805 the final definitive battle of the Napoleonic Wars took place. After the peace, resulting from The Battle Of Trafalgar, there was a lesser requirement for vessels of this type. She was refitted as a store ship, the extra S in it's name coming from this store function. In 1815 it was renamed the H.M.S.S. Coromandel, the second of four vessels to be so named in the Navy.

She made only one visit to NZ. and that was in 1820. She had acted as a convict ship on her way from England. Convicts and their military guards were dropped of in both Hobart and Sydney. She spent nearly nine months in Coromandel Harbour, then known as Waiau. It took this long to gather a load of kauri spars for the Admiralty.

A passenger of the vessel, the Rev. Samuel Marsden, transfered the name of the vessel to the location, and eventually, the peninsula. If he had known he might well have considered the name to have "heathen" origins. Then the Coromandel could have been named after something more biblical, like Bethlehem! Marsden himself is a contradictory character. In N.S.W. he seemed to have every option well covered. He received land as a settler, bought more and ended up with 3,000 acres. This he worked with convict labour,he was also a judge and a member of the clergy. In Australia he was known as "The Flogging Parson" A description of one of his floggings, written it must be noted, by one of his religious opposites, is quite horrific. Three hundred lashes, with flesh and blood hitting spectators some 15m. distant! In NZ he has a more benign image and his name is associated with both religious and academic institutions to this day. It should be noted that he introduced the grapevine to NZ! On the debit side, members of the Church Missionary Society, who he represented, got mixed up in gun running. Not a very Christian message to give your converts! To his credit he did dismiss these contributors to the Maori Musket Wars. A recent biography describes him as having "an incurable psychological impairment". Even so he managed some incredible achievements.

As for H.M.S.S. Coromandel, she returned to the UK with her load of kauri spars. The quality was good but the cost was twice that of material sourced in Virginia. She did not return to NZ. Eventually She was converted into a prison hulk and acted in that role in Bermuda from 1828 to 1853 and was then broken up.

In England breaking up of naval vessels was a sort of recycling. Many an English pub has beams in it's structure that once sailed the seas. It would be great to think of some friendly hostelry in Bermuda, its patrons protected by timbers that once formed H.M.S.S. Coromandel.

TUATEAWA TREE HUGGERS?

Well, not really. This is a bit of kiwi "can do' in operation. A ball of twine, a pair of scissors, some ingenuity and minor acrobatics was all it took! This kauri is on the slopes of Whanake. One of the few to escape the axe during during the mayhem of the colonial and post colonial period.

It's girth measured PRECISELY 4.81m. Less accurate observations and calculations suggest a total volume of timber approximating 25 cubic m. Not really the way to think about such a beautiful tree, but it was the colonial perspective.

It is really just a baby although probably well into it's second century. It is worth giving it a value in current terms because it helps to explain why these trees were cut at such a prodigious rate in the past. An exact value for sawn and dressed kauri timber could be around NZ$ 2 000/cubic m. This would make this Tuateawa specimen worth around NZ$ 50 000. The biggest Northland kauri has a volume, including it's major branches, in excess of 500 cubic m. It is a million dollar tree but it's true value is not monetary.

Today little kauri is milled other than sub fossil material, buried by the many cataclysmic events of the past few thousand years. Logging does still continue elsewhere in the Pacific Islands. Our kauri is the only temperate adapted species out of the twenty that exist. The rest grow in sub-tropical situations.

Is this specimen the largest tree in the Tuateawa area? There could well be others. One candidate is easily visible from Tuateawa. It is in what appears to be difficult country, in the hills to the north of the road on the way to Kennedy Bay. All you need to claim the record is some bush crashing ability and, of course, a ball of twine and a pair of scissors!

Tuateawa Plant Spot: TMESIPTERIS TANNENSIS, The fork "fern"

This is a fairly common plant in Tuateawa. It is usual to find it growing as an epiphyte on the trunks of tree ferns.It is nothing flash to look at, so most interest revolves around it's status as a living fossil. We consider the Tuatara to be very special. It had it's major flourishing 200 million years ago, but managed to survive when all of it's relatives became extinct 60 million years ago.

This plant goes back about 350 million years, long before Gondwanaland, to the time of the very first supercontinent, Pangea. Its ancestors were among the first plants to develop adaptations to living on the land. They had vascular tissue for moving water and sugars around, a big improvement on the mosses. They lacked true roots and their leaves were small and scale like. Plants continued to evolve with better adaptations, first the ferns and finally the flowering plants which make up current dominant vegetation.

Today most of Tmesipteris relatives are known only from their fossils. Only a few species exist in this far corner of the world, in Tasmania, some parts of Australia and islands like the New Hebrides and others in the Indian Ocean. They still exist because they found a new place to live. On the trunks of one of the plants that replaced them!

Kuaka video

Kuaka/Bar Tailed Godwit 2

Kuaka arriving with Cuvier on the horizon

Sometimes you can be at the right spot at the right time. I think that this might have been a first! Last Friday, we were walking along the beach at Waikawau, wishing that we had a bucket. There were enough cast up tuatua for a good feed. Further along the beach we could see an ongoing territorial dispute between a pair of N.Z. Dotterels.

Then, in the distance, over the sea, a fast moving group of birds appeared. It was a twenty strong flock of kuaka! They put on a superb display of high speed, close formation flying and then landed in disputed territory.

The male N.Z. Dotterel made a number of full tilt running approaches to the kuaka in an attempt to move them on. Some were nearly skittled, their sidestep not being up to it, but they made a good stumbling recovery and could not be moved. The male N.Z. Dotterel eventually took up a watching brief and the kuaka quickly started to probe the sand for food.

It is possible that they had just made landfall after their epic flight from Alaska. More likely, they were beach hopping on their way to feeding grounds in some southern estuary.

Whanake: From Shore To Summit.

Titimiri Point

The Labour Day break will soon be upon us and the population of Tuateawa will increase remarkably. A great time and place to relax, and maybe, overindulge a little. Should you wish to compensate for the latter I can thoroughly recommend a stroll in the bush. We have been fortunate to have a track from Waiherere Drive to the trig. point on Whanake for a considerable period. More recently this has been added to by the completion of a walkway through the existing subdivision and the new Tokeroa subdivision down to the coast. Now you can walk from the coast a little south of "Boulder Bay" to the trig. and beyond.

Ngaio at the back of Boulder Bay

Shore celery, taste it!

The journey is a relatively short one with no difficult climbs. The coastal trees are very large and probably pre-European in age and there are magnificent stands of nikau palm.

Green hooded orchid on the new path

The vegetation varies as you climb nearly a thousand feet to get to the trig which is well carved with the initials of Tuateawa kids, many now well into adulthood.

Tokaroa from the Trig Track

Titimiri Cliffs from the Trig Track

Beyond the trig about fifteen minutes is a rocky bluff with a view to match any on the journey. It's worth sitting here for a while. If you do you will be surrounded by the scent of a pale yellow clematis that scrambles over the surrounding rocks.

View beyond Kennedy Bay

P.S. I have been quite happy to take advantage of the Labour Day Weekend whilst not knowing too much of it's origins. On investigating I was really surprised that it had it's beginnings in Pre Treaty New Zealand. Samuel Parnell an English carpenter, arrived in Wellington in 1839. He and other tradesmen were in great demand due to their scarcity and were able to negotiate from a position of strength. Wellington was one of the first places to see the eight hour day, forty hour week. This happened in 1840 and has been celebrated by a public holiday from 1900 until the present.

The forty hour working week was brought in by the first Labour Govt. in 1940 but has never been formally enshrined in law. Statistics NZ figures show the average working week to be around 38 hours including some overtime. This average does include a significant number of part time workers. Figures from the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development tell a different story. Forty percent of employees work more than 45hr. a week and nineteen percent work more than 50 hours. This is more in line with my personal experience and observation. The work/life balance of Samuel Parnell has gone a little astray for some of us. Good reason to make the very best of unique places like Tuateawa!

Tuateawa and Kennedy Bay

One of the most upmarket Auckland suburbs bears the name of our archetypal working man, Samuel Parnell. Our prime Minister lives there and, ironically, it is part of the Epsom electorate of our celebrated dancer, Rodney Hide!

New Chums Beach.

New Chums has been drawing a lot of local attention in recent weeks. It is a bit of a journey to get there from Tuateawa unless you go by sea even though Motutapu at it's northern end is part of the Tuateawa seascape. It is an incredible beach and well worth visiting with guests. Just over an hour on the road, followed by a twenty minute walk and you are there.

It's beauty is known worldwide and has been rated as one of the top twenty beaches in the world. The A. A. also has it as one of 101 must visit places. It combines the whitest sand, great surf and a magnificent bush and cave pierced cliff backdrop. The proposal to subdivide the land behind the beach could hardly pass without notice.

It is worth mentioning that the public had no legal access to this beach. Property rights extend to the high tide mark. This also ruled out any legal jurisdiction over the beach on the part of T.C.D.C. and presumably D.O.C. Under the District Plan the land could have been legally subdivided into up to 260 lots. The developers claim a benign, not for profit, interest in this process and have entered into extensive consultation with interested parties in forming their consent application.

The interested parties are many and varied. These include local ratepayers, local Iwi, T.C.D.C., D.O.C. Env. Waikato. amongst others. According to an article in the Weekend edition of the Waikato Times a good resolution of different viewpoints has been obtained. Twenty lots are proposed, none on the beach, the public have guaranteed access and T.C.D.C. have control of the coastal esplanade. In September they gazetted a new regulation regarding dogs on beaches during bird breeding season. This was a D.O.C. initiative and New Chums is now able to be included on this list. This is good news for the N.Z. Dotterel which have attempted to breed on New Chums in non regulated circumstances.

The consent application is yet to be heard before an independent commissioner. What is being advanced as a win win situation by T.C.D.C. may not eventuate.

What must be of general concern to all is the lax regulations that could permit an high density development in such a remarkable location. Concern has been expressed in Tuateawa about legal subdivision as small as 600sq. m./lot. Tuateawa has many adjacent locations with similar values to New Chums Beach. We should not count on the very unusual cooperative circumstances that arose in New Chums being repeated in our part of the world. There is a need for some clear cut sensible legislation to protect outstanding coastal environments such as Tuateawa.

New Zealand Dotterel.

Tuateawa is a place of many and varied pleasures. One of these is surely a walk along Waikawau Bay. Sometimes yours are the only footprints, often there are shellfish to be gathered. After a storm, amongst all the other debris, you might get a good haul of kauri gum. One thing you can always depend on is finding some N.Z.Dotterel (N.Z.D.) At last census in 2004 there were some 1700 birds of the northern race of this species in the whole of NZ. In the whole world in fact because these birds do not emigrate. There aren't huge numbers on the beach as they require a minimum of half a kilometre of beach for each breeding pair. In 1987, before conservation measures were introduced there were only five birds on the beach. The most recent census found ten breeding pairs.

It is always going to be an endangered species as it is so dependent on human management. The good news is that it does respond well although management needs to be quite intensive. Waikawau is one of only two key breeding sites on the Coromandel. Consequently it attracts a big management effort including the fencing of nesting areas and the oversight of a warden during the breeding season. Predator control is included as part of the Moehau Ecology Group's (M.E.G.) Kiwi Recovery project.

Most of the negative factors for the N.Z.D. arise from the fact that it needs to be where we want to be, the beach! Human impact from coastal development, the exercising of dogs and the use of vehicles can be major. At Whangamata last summer only one bird fledged from 29 eggs laid. Dogs were a big factor in the loss of chicks. At other local beaches vehicles probably destroy a number of nests as D.O.C. does not have the resource to monitor all breeding sites.

On Waikawau breeding results can vary. Despite best efforts predators do have an impact. The hedgehog, an animal that we tend to have some affection for, is a big nocturnal predator of eggs and chicks. More hedgehogs are trapped here than mustelids. Beatrix Potter, in humanising some members of the animal world,with characters like Mrs. Tiggy Wiggy, has probably done the rest quite a disservice!

Last season Spring Tides and following seas washed away many nests.

The N.Z.D. does have the ability to quickly replace a nestful of lost eggs and this gives it the ability to respond positively to conservation initiatives. They are quite long lived birds and so have maybe as much as twelve years to replace themselves. It has been calculated that a pair need only to average 0.326 chicks fledged per year to maintain the population. The good news is that conservation has raised this to an average figure of 0.77 chicks fledged/pair/year on Waikawau. Waikawau birds are now helping to populate other beaches. There has been a general increase in the overall N.Z.D. population since the first recovery strategy was put in place in 1993.

Should you fancy a trip to Colville around Anniversary Day or later you can get a good idea of just how successful a year the local N.Z.D. has had. At the end of the breeding season dotterel tend to flock up at Colville Bay. The new birds lack the reddish chest of the adults.

Tuateawa Roads.

Carved into the sides of often precipitous valleys the roads to and around Tuateawa are a frequent topic of conversation. When you have negotiated these sections there is a little time for a glance at the immediate surroundings, particularly if you are the passenger. Roads tend to be agents of change in any area and, consequently there are often things of interest to be seen.

Kumerahou,Gorse and Manuka

Native plants establish themselves on the road verges. At the moment Kumerahou, with its golden flowers, is very obvious . It's extracts are often found in herbal face cleansers and eye makeup removers. Some of this is probably due to the soap like chemicals in it's flowers. One of it's many names is Gumdiggers Soap. There is also a myth which suggests that it sprang into existence from one of the rollers used to launch the great Tainui Canoe so it is also known as Golden Tainui.

Mingimingi

Less obvious at the sides of the road is Mingimingi. At first glance, it is very similar to Manuka. Closer inspection shows it to have drooping flower bunches and black stems (which are not due to fire blight). Later, white fruits appear.

Not at all obvious and definitely not native are the pasture plants introduced into the area by early settlers and their descendants. There is a good variety of flowering herbs and an array of grasses with appealing names like Crested Dogstail and Sweet Vernal Grass. They have been largely suppressed in the original pastures, being over topped by Kikuyu after grazing animals were removed. Modern pastures have many fewer species. They are probably more productive but a whole lot more boring! Grazing does still exist on the verges, if only mechanically, by the council mower! Consequently relics of those old pastures still exist. While helping to preserve something of Tuateawa's biological past the mowers are also busy spreading new plant species along the verges. The orange Montbretia is but one example. Recently Blue Eyed Grass has also appeared and become common.

Not all road verges are created equal. This road cutting near Little Bay has been cut through much harder material than that generally found in Tuateawa. Soil formation is very slow on such material. It presents a potentially very dry environment with low quantities of the essential minerals needed for plants to thrive. Some however manage quite well.

This sundew is flowering now and will have formed seed before the dry weather arrives. As a carnivorous plant it is able to supplement its supplies of nitrogen and phosphorus by digesting insects trapped on it's sticky leaves. Gorse is another plant that has an edge in such circumstances. Nitrogen fixing root bacteria help it overtop less favoured native plants.

Hakea bush

Even spinier and more drought resistant than Gorse is the Downy Hakea. An Australian Protea, similar to our garden Grevilleas, it is a real survivor.

Hakea flowering on walkway to Tokaroa Tuateawa

Should the tragedy of fire eventuate Hakea will spring up everywhere as fire breaks the dormancy of it's seeds.

In the future, we may all become a little more familiar with the road verges alongside our properties. Recently T.C.D.C. devolved responsibility for the maintenance of verges onto the respective rural land holder.