Sunday 23rd April, 27 Enthusiastic ‘Plants People’ leave Dunedin on a beautiful Otago autumn day bound for Te Anau in 2 vans and 2 utes packed with winter woollies and lots of plastic bags.
Stopped for groceries at the New World in Gore and to everyone’s horror it was one of the few supermarkets that do not sell alcohol!!!!!! Coffee at Riverdale was another disappointment for some, as they only served tea!!!!!! Finally arrived at our “Home away from Home” Grumpy’s Backpackers – on the shore of Lake Te Anau between Te Anau and the Homer Tunnel.

Eddie Welsh had a wonderful surprise when Jan and his family joined him for dinner that night, as it was their 30th Wedding Anniversary. CONGRATULATIONS JAN AND EDDIE.

Monday: We woke to a gorgeous day and with our packed lunch, plastic bags and winter woollies drove to the top of Mt Prospect, 3,100ft. Mount Prospect Station (privately owned) east of Te Anau, with a transmitter station on the top - hence the gravel, well maintained road, driving to the top the views were extensive over the Te Anau basin. Then the FUN began finding seeds and identifying the Alpine plants. Our HUGE thanks go to our guides, Steve Newell (in his jandals!!), Terry and Lindsey Hatch and Philip Smith who all have such a wide knowledge of these plants.

As we walked down the mountain we also saw Matagouri, very skinny Leptospermums, Olearia avicenniaefolia, Silver Beech and seed on the Bog Pine. To name just a few. It was amazing to see the different eco-systems in each little valley.

Drove to Moose Flat and the carpark of the Watering Hole, we have never seen so many beautiful orange heads of Astelia chathamica seed. (each berry contained at least 8-12 seeds!!!)
Watched the sunset over Lake Te Anau.

Anzac Day, Tuesday: Another beautiful morning for our trip on the Mitre Peak Cruises boat in Milford Sounds. Piopiotahi meaning “Place of the Singing Thrush”, a bird which is now extinct. High cloud was forming over the mountains as we drove the 75kms through Homer Tunnel to Milford. Our skipper, Laurie steered the boat very close (at times) to the steep sides of the Valley so we could see and try and identify plants growing in the crevices between the rocks. Olearia haastii, Pseudopanax edgerleyi, Poa species & Phormium cookianum

Just as well we had the boat to ourselves!!! Saw crayfish pots near Post Office Rock and the area where the only bowenite, Takaupai Greenstone is found, a translucent finer form of Jade.

The story is told of the great chief Tamakite Rangi whose three wives deserted him. He took his canoe down the West Coast looking in every corner not knowing that the canoe with crew and his three wives had been wrecked at Anita Bay, Milford Sounds. He found one who had turned into greenstone; in his grief he wept bitter tears, which penetrated into the greenstone leaving tear marks of love and distress hence the flecks in some of the Milford greenstone.

We headed back into the Sounds from the Tasman Sea seeing a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins coming out to the open sea. A great sight, with them jumping out of the green/blue water. In the Sounds there is about 1 metre of fresh water above the sea water (after heavy rain, can be 3 metres) giving the Sounds water the chocolate brown colour of the tannin from the Beech Trees. Often heavy rain brings down vegetation avalanches into the Sounds. The vegetation has such a shallow root system. Getting close to the big Waterfalls – Bowen Falls, Bridle Veil Falls gave all those on the top deck a fine misty shower.

Driving back towards the Homer Tunnel, we stopped in misty rain at the “Chasm” where the power of the waterfall has carved huge holes in the rocks.

Met up with Steve Newell on the Western Portal of the Homer Tunnel where we clambered up a steep path/steps seeing: Dracophyllum menziesii, Pittosporum crassicaulii, Astelia nervosa, Celmisia petrei, Celmisia ramulose, Celmisia semicordata, Brachyglottis moschata, Hymenanthera alpina. In such a small area such a wide range of plants species.

Raincoats and leggings were a must with a very wetting mist. Homer Tunnel construction started in the 1930’s and finished in the 1950’s - six men lost their lives. On the Eastern Portal of the Homer Tunnel we went on the nature walk with Mountain Daisy, Mountain Buttercups, Mountain Lily, Snow totara, Dracophyllum, Forstera sp., Snow marguerite, Gentian’s. A friendly Kea made his appearance at the car park and showed us his inquisitive ways.

An interesting stop 6kms up the Hollyford Valley at Gunn’s Camp - huts, shop and museum, showing the history of that area. Wednesday: Woke to low cloud and rain so a change of plans. “No helicopter flying”. News that 100mls had fallen in the Dunedin area overnight and snow on all the South Island passes and Queenstown.

A visit to the Te Anau township theatre to see the film “Ata Whenua Shadowland”. A cinematic experience of Fiordland filmed from local helicopters. WOW!!!!! Spectacular footage, filmed across extremes of season, climate and terrain. “Awe inspiring”.

On the Te Anau – Manapouri Highway we stopped in to Fiordland Nurseries where Graeme Humphries runs a very tidy Garden Centre, Nursery, Lawn mowing, Landscaping and Revegetation Business. Lake Manapouri -“Real Journeys” Skipper/Bus Driver, Matt McLeod took us across in the boat to the West Arm Visitors Centre. From that site we could see the Above Ground Control Station building (now empty as the power station is now run from Twizel), a switch yard and four sets of transmission lines that loop across the head of the lake to Comalco Aluminium Smelter in Bluff. Work began on the Power Station in 1963 and was completed in 1971, 176 metres below lake level. We drove down the 2km granite-sided tunnel by bus, turning around at the bottom and walking to the viewing platform above the Machine Hall. The workers were finishing the upgrade of the last turbine. All the turbines had been upgraded taking over 4 years to complete.

Back to top side and blue skies, snowing high on the mountain tops around Wilmot Pass. At the top we turned around and saw the view of Doubtful Sound, more alpines, and Cleve Garth Falls, 365m high. Stopped at the Moss Garden, site of a wide variety of coloured mosses and lichen before catching the boat back to Manapouri and more rain.

Thursday: Left Te Anau for Dunedin stopping to see the Bog Pines and tussock with snow on the mountaintops. Coffee at Five Rivers Café. One van went to Dunedin via Lake Wakatipu with Philip Smith to see other alpines. The other van stopped at Hokonui Alpines owned by Peter Salmon and sister Louisa. A very interesting collection of alpine plants. Met up with Steve again and visited his Balclutha Nursery for lunch to see some of his inventive seed cleaning methods. Entering Dunedin along the Taieri Plains we witnessed the extent of the floods from the day before. No paddocks just a huge lake!!!!!

Proving the power of the elements.

A trip we ALL will be buzzing about for quite some time. Thank you Mark Brown for all the organizing, a job well done.