Saturday dawned fine for an early start at 7.30 am. The trip had been re-scheduled because of bad weather so volunteer numbers were down to seven: Ralph our fearless leader, Roger, Pierre, Mark, Garry, Paul and Katy.
The Wairere Falls car park was busy when we arrived at about 10am and set off on the steep climb up beside the waterfall. There are many wooden steps and a viewing point about halfway up. We had each brought along our implement of choice: several had hedge clippers, two had pruning saws that proved very useful for windfalls and Pierre had a grubber for digging out larger plants.
After pitching camp in a grassy clearing near the river we fuelled up and began our first day’s work – well afternoon’s work - by the time we reached the spot on the North/South track. Four hours of weeding and chopping later we had cleared just under a kilometre of track. The rain held off for a pleasant evening meal back at the campsite.
Of particular interest to me with a botanical background were the large numbers of different fern species along the track including the relatively rare Blechnum nigrum or Black fern. We also found lots of beautiful scented orchids in flower and the blue toadstool we have on our $50 note Entoloma hochstetteri.
Overnight it rained but fortunately stopped for breakfast and most of the second day’s work. We estimated about 3 kilometres of track has now been cleared from the Wairere Falls track a good way along the North/South track . It was judged a successful weekend’s work in spite of the weather forecast.