The Omahuta Kauri Sanctuary and Horeke

It is 143Km from The Riverbank to the Omahuta Kauri Forest Sanctuary. We took State Highway 1 to Mangamuka where we turned off west onto  gravel road up into the forest. The drive is very scenic with the bush getting more stunning with each kilometre traveled. The Reserve is clearly sign posted about 12 Km form the State Highway.

The walk through the Sanctuary follows a loop path past many large mature magestic kauri and some very large fallen logs that takes about about 30 minutes. It is easy to spend much longer here with these huge kauri. Hokianga, the largest is reportedly the sixth largest in New Zealand. It stands very tall, straight with a huge head. The Omahuta Kauri Sanctuary is home to the 'Ngapuhi Tree', ranked in the top 20 kauri trees of New Zealand.


Not only is there a spectacular Kauri stand, there is also many large rimu and a large variety of other mature natives. Truly a fine bush walk.

We took a detour on the way home and stopped at the Horeke Pub.
This is an absolute must for a touch of a little of New Zealands oldest history. i.e. The oldest pub (Serving beer since 1826) and Horeke being the second oldest town. There is quite a story. Follow the links and visit the village.

 

Strawberries From Our Garden

Ah! Summer!
Don't you just love strawberries!

First Tomtit Sighting at Ratty's Landing

At 7:30 this morning Melva spotted a Tomtit in the Kanuka beside our deck. We had a good extended sighting at between 2 ~ 3 metres. It was a juvenile male. Wonderful. This is a first for us at Ratty's Landing.
At the same time we watched a family of fantails being fed by the parents.

Bees

Checked our bees today. The little ladies are working hard. Should have honey this season. It already tastes good.

Picking Blackberries

At Last!! We have berries.  Last year we could only pick about a cup full. Our blackberries just did not fruit.

Melva grading berries for muffins, jelly and buckles

Between Sunday and this morning we picked about 12.5 litres of the beautiful dark fruit.
We have two wild varieties here. One with white blossoms fruits over Christmas.  The other (Mauve blossoms) starts fruiting at the end of January. So in a good year we have blackberries from about the 20th December to the end of February.
We fill the freezer. Melva makes jetty, jam, muffins, buckles and deserts. One of the best is blackberry and rhubarb crumble. We get enough to last the year from our patch. If it is a good year that is. It really is a bit warm in the north for blackberries. They grow well but fruit can dry on the canes due to the heat.

Summer - Wonderful Summer

The Pohutukawa is in flower so Summer is here

We have eaten our first stalk of bananas. The whole stalk fell off the tree in a wind while still unripe. We ripened them on the deck in the sun and they were every bit as good as expected. We still have four more at various stages of readiness. The newest is just a shoot at the top of the tree.

We had a lovely Sunday evening. Melva cooked some sausages, we grabbed a bottle of wine, picked up some hot potato chips from the Ngunguru Takeaway, drove down to the Ngunguru School car park where there is a beautiful sand spit / estuary view and had our dinner there. It really is a lovely peaceful spot and easy to do.

We also found a pair of stick insects in the Kanuka by our deck. There used to be a lot but since sparrows arrive we hardly ever see them now.

Bees Bees Bees and Other Things

Still only two hives but now we have lots of bees.  On a sunny warm day like today our valley is humming. Every plant with flowers has bees on it. They have already been to our peach trees that now have more fruit set than ever. Here are a few of the plants that the bees are visiting today.

The most interesting thing is that an insect has drilled the Borage flowers near the base and the bees are going there for the nectar instead of down the flower.

Yesterday we also saw a Common Green Gecko by the drive. Nice to know that we have them.

Borage showing holes in flower base

Borage and bee

Kanuka

Rengarenga

Rengarenga

Greanium

Borage and Echium

Echium & Daisies

Bee in Fejoa

Fejoa

Potato

Bees carrying pollen

Manuka

Daisies

Potato

Calendula

Elder Berry

Rocket

Piwakawaka

The Fantails that were nesting by the deck have left the nest and are busy being fed by the parent birds. Fantastic! They made a perfect nest this time in a nicely sheltered location. There are two chicks. One of the parents is the bird that visits the compost bin with Melva. It is not frightened of us at all. Such dear little birds.

A Walk on Whatitiri Maunga

What a fantastic place. At the top of Whatitiri Maunga near Whangarei in Northland there is a small DOC Reserve accessed from Simons Road. It is public road all the way to the reserve though not all maintained by Whangarei District Council. There is a gate. Just go over it.
The Reserve is predominantly Tarairi but there are fine specimens of Tawa and Pukatea and Kohekohe. There is an abundance of New Zealand Jasmine and Hen and Chickens ferns. We even found a Green Hooded Orchid. There are no tracks in the reserve but it is easy to explore. This bush is interesting as it is quite different to most other northland bush.
At 351 metres Whatitiri Maunga is one of the higher hills in the region. The views from around the reserve are fantastic

One of the views

Tarairi

A small Tarairi near the reserve

Tarairi

Wineberry

An old Tawa

Late Spring

The Fantails are feeding their first clutch just near our deck. We have just discovered that if one sees a fantail flying in a straight line it is flying a feed home to the chicks. The rest of the time, and all year, they do acrobatics with that fancy tail showing off.
Cuckoo arrived from a South West Pacific Island on the 26th September. Late to our place this year. The first arrival of this little migratory bird we heard of was an early 7th September.

Our early blackberries are in flower. Almost no fruit last summer. We need them to perform this summer. The blooms were visited by lots of bees this sunny day.

 











Melva found a new, quite rare shrub yesterday. It is called Alseuosmia Banksii - Variation Linariifolia. It is in bloom and its perfume is fantastic. Lovely small shrub in the understory. It grows to about a metre high. We also found that we have a second variety of Mahoe. It too is in bloom.

 
















We have had two bee hives since last February. The second hive has been fairly quiet. Lately the new post winter brood hatched so it and the first hive are rocking. Loads of bees. They are everywhere collecting pollen and nectar as more and more flowers bloom.

Always some more Fernbird stories. Some friends from the OSNZ visited and the birds performed as expected. Difficult to get photos but I love this great shot. There is another of one carrying something white and round in its beak back to its nest. Too blurry to use. We had fantastic sightings that day with the birds very close to us.