A Boxing Day Tramp

Christmas in a foreign country, not to mention – in the middle of summer, and without family is pretty much a non-event. We were invited to our supervisor’s home for a Christmas brunch, and then spent most of the afternoon with several other senior missionaries who are here from various parts of the U.S. It was all pretty low key. The day after Christmas was spent at our apartment after doing some necessary chores. But… Tah dah … then came Boxing Day, a national holiday. After staying inside almost all of Christmas and the day after we were itching to get out and do something.

We drove to a large public forest (here it is called a range) about an hour from our apartment. We found a “track” that we hadn’t “tramped.” (A trail we hadn’t followed)

We started by crossing a long suspended swinging bridge that crossed a deep ravine with a small river running through it. Both sides of the ravine were covered with bushes, vines, ferns, and trees.

We’ve looked up at a lot of ferns and the beautiful silhouettes they make against the blue skies. But this was the first time we’ve actually been able to look right down into the center of one.

We didn’t go very far before we started to climb. Fortunately, most of the uphill paths had stair steps or we probably wouldn’t have made it to the top of the mountain. The trail consisted of one set of steps after another after another – always through a beautiful, lush, rain forest.

Once in a while the path would almost level out and we would be able to catch our breath before taking off again on another climb.

About half way up to the summit we were able to catch this vista of the farm lands below. What a beautiful countryside. What a beautiful country.

As with most of our adventures, I try to mix my appreciation of the wide open expanse (as above) with the local flora and fauna. But I also really enjoy getting on my knees and inspecting the small details and make it all alive.

This little puff was the head of a moss covering. The closer I got, the more details I could see. Each little leaflet was edged with fine cilia-like fuzz. It is so easy for me to become enchanted with these details.

Continuing my interest in the “details” I was able to capture on “film” several other unique plants with captivating growth patterns.

This particular leaf is a fern, but the intriguing things are the raised dots that run along both sides of each lobe of the leaf.

Here we have another fern. This is probably the most common fern we see here in New Zealand. It is called the Silver fern.

This is a picture of the underside of the leaf above. Now you can see why it is called the Silver Fern.

When Silver Ferns get old and dry up, they hang in some of the most interesting arrangements.

Our hike not only took us through the lush rain forests, but toward the top of the mountain we entered a section of tall, tall trees – but even they didn’t seem to inhibit the undergrowth too much.

Continuing my fascination with the finer details, I captured several forms of moss.

These little curly mosses were so soft and furry.

But others are prickly and spiny.

Diane thinks I get too involved in my picture taking. Here she caught me leaning against a tree to get just the right angle and lighting for something that captured my attention.

The trail eventually started downward. It is a lot easier going down using the steps. We aren’t as sure-footed as we once were.

High in the mountain tops we caught some wonderful vistas. Cloudy days in New Zealand are the norm. But that made for an absolutely wonderful hike. Not too hot, not too cold – just right – so we eat it all up.

Coming down a bit further our trail skirted this beautiful lake.

There were several ups, even when coming down. But mountain climbing is that way.

But we eventually arrived back to the road (gravel) where we parked our car.

But before going home we stopped in Pokeno for some Turkish pastry and ice cream.

A wonderful day! Happy Boxing Day!