28 Comments

This was great, Melanie. Reading it made me feel I was there. As I hope to be one day!

I shall try to take more notice of my own surroundings. In Finland, I'm seeing a lot of white birch and scots pine. I'm also seeing a lot of tree of heaven along the road sides and disturbed soil. I imagine that plant has rmade it to NZ also?

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Thanks John. I hope you get to see it too.

Yes, tree of heaven has made it here too. In fact I'm battling a few plants of it which somehow ended up in my garden. Scots pine has been planted in New Zealand as well and in some areas it's invasive, although not as invasive as lodgepole pine - more on that to come.

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Scots pine is very hardy, surviving all the way into the arctic circle in Scandinavia. We have several subspecies of lodgepole pine in the PNW. There are shore pines I can see from my house. Last year, we did a trail race at Mt. Bachelor, a volcano in Oregon. That was pretty much a lodgepole monoculture. I'll await your article to read about which you have and where!

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I'm still trying to pin down the interview, but hope to have it done soon. Whatever subspecies of lodgepole we have, it's one of the ones that us useless for timber.

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I love that you can appreciate both the native forest and spot the unusual in the plantation pine. Nature is so surprising and indomitable isn't it? Such a strong urge to survive and flourish...

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Thanks PJ. Yes, I've been observing that ability of life to survive and flourish despite all the things we throw at it. I've particularly been noticing it when I look at our water and the ways we have mistreated it, yet many species still do survive.

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Thanks Melanie, another great article. Not often I can pull you up on facts but today I was making my way towards the end of Krakatoa, by Simon Winchester. Thoroughly recommended. The largest volcanic eruption “the world has ever known”, the maximum 8 on the explosive index, was Mt Toba , 74,000 ago in Sumatra. The next, Mt Tambora in 1815, 7 on this scale. Taupo was third largest in AD 180 ( scale not mentioned).

We visited Whakaari a few yrs back but I would not have done so after reading this book

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Thanks Peter. I agree with you on Krakatoa, it's a fabulous book. That's interesting what it says about Tambora. I wonder if the difference is in wording or how they are measured. I checked back with the GNS website, and Taupō is described as the "most violent" in the last 5000 years and the "most powerful". I wonder if Tambora was larger in terms of volume but there was something about the intensity of the blast which is what GNS are talking about.

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Pg 309 Mt Toba had a Volcanic Explosive Index or VEI of 8….the highest on the now universally accepted scale.

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Taupo is also listed as a VEI of 8 but It gets even more interesting, for it now seems Mt Toba requires the the additional level of 9, given the volume of material ….took a screen shot but couldn’t attach

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It is hard to not love eucalyptus trees especially for the scent. We had two modest stands near our beach town years ago in central California. I always adjusted my route near the beach to walk or drive past them.

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I agree, Mark. I live in southern California, and I love the beauty and aroma of eucalypti. I have to confess that I like them up to a point. They can be highly invasive here. We have some canyons here where eucalyptus trees have completely taken over, not a single native species in sight.

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Yes, it's difficult, I can recognise that they are an invasive species in some places. That's one of the real challenges with invasive species. One of New Zealand's most beloved trees, the pohutukawa has become invasive in South Africa.

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Yes. We have some wonderful trees and other plants from many different places. Most of them, like the shady magnolia trees from the American South or the enormous Morton Bay fig trees from Australia, aren't invasive. And the only way to really find out if a species will be invasive is to plant it somewhere else. Most times it's benign, but sometimes it's a big disaster.

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I love magnolias. And they are indeed a good example of a non-invasive species here too.

Morton Bay figs will stay non-invasive for as long as the pollinator wasp stays out of the USA. If you get the wasp, all bets are off.

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They are wonderful, aren't they, even though I think they are quite troublesome in California.

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This is beautiful Melanie. I recall being particularly struck when visiting a regenerating Eucalypt forest in Australia many years ago when I was involved in old-growth forest activism. The amazing power of nature to regenerate itself gave me a lot of hope then, and this piece gives me hope now too. Thank you!

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Thank you so much, I'm really glad you liked it. Regenerating eucalypt forest is amazing. I've seen some after fires and the way they resprout feels almost magical.

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Love your columns Melanie, and this one is no exception. You have an acute appreciation of your surroundings and a lovely way of describing and sharing that understanding, knowledge and the emotions they evoke.

I feel blessed to have been enjoying more walks in the past couple of years with a NZForest&Bird walking group and have discovered that actually we do have fork ferns and miromiro in our forests in Wellington! For example in the Kaitoke forest (ridge track) and Remutaka (Catchpool) forest - both easy day (or half day) walks. Happy to have a coffee and swap notes!

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That's awesome Vicky. I'll have to do some more of that. I'm heading away for a bit, but will be back in early October so would be great to catch up on cool places around Wellington.

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Beautiful descriptions, imagery and photos.

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Thank you so much.

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Beautifully written, Melanie - makes me feel like going for a good long hike!🌿 I agree, there is nothing quite like the smell and feel of our native forests.

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Thank you. They are amazing aren't they. I love them more and more.

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I’ve been a Rotorua local for nearly six years now, and as a keen mountain biker and (when not injured) runner, Whakarewarewa forest is very much my happy place. I certainly don’t have the same eye for details as you do (I love your descriptions too) but I do try to take in and appreciate what is within this great asset nearly on my back door. There is a lot of diversity and wildlife to be found, though it does border on to native forest and has pockets within, so perhaps not surprising. Tui, korimako, miromiro, nesting and defensive kārearea. A highlight of night riding is having ruru swoop ahead of me on the trail - as well as hearing them of course. A couple of weeks ago we took the kids in for a night walk and found a big wall of glow worms that I never knew about - what a highlight! What is not so cool, and so very apparent especially if I’m out very early in the morning, is the huge numbers of wallabies, not to mention the possums and occasional stoat. The wallaby population in particular is next level.

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Wow, that's fabulous with the ruru when you're riding at night. Being in the forest at night is something special indeed. There must be some good humidity to get a wall of glow-worms, I think. I find myself really encouraged by the diversity of native species doing well in plantations, because even if I can't love them, because they are an inevitable part of our landscape. I agree that the pest problems are concerning. I also saw quite a bit of possum damage in the Tongariro National Park which was sad to see.

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What a lovely walk in the woods (several woods!) with you, Melanie! I love your descriptions and what you notice along the way. And I love the bark of the rimu and how you describe it as "like a topographic map, with contour lines chiselled in the surface" -- just beautiful!

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Thank you so much. I can remember even as a child being fascinated by the different barks of native trees.

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