Trip Report – 7 September 2013:   Wright Hill Reserve, Karori

This reserve is almost entirely in the catchment of Karori Stream, and the contiguous Burrows Avenue Reserve is entirely within it.   The two reserves are managed as a unit by Wellington City Council.

In perfect conditions, we met at the end of Fitzgerald Place, South Karori, to the whir of a kereru and the song of a tui.   The severe southerly gales of 20 June had defoliated mahoe crowns in the catchment, and the resultant leaf litter had provided plentiful mulch for the germination of seeds, and nourishment of seedlings.

The trip was planned as a circuit via Deliverance and Salvation tracks, but we travelled so slowly because we were busy listing, teaching and learning, that most of us went only most of the way up Deliverance Track, and back down again.   Some members later completed the circuit back to the car park.

Clematis paniculata male flowers.   Photo:   Jeremy Rolfe.

Not far into the walk Adiantum raddianum was mistaken for an indigenous maidenhair species until its garden-escape status was explained.   Of particular interest was seeing several Cyathea cunninghamii, not common in Wellington ecosystems.   Flowering tree fuchsia and Clematis paniculata showed that spring has arrived.   Other highlights included a NZ falcon / karearea, a leaf-veined slug, and three kaka in a rowdy chase beneath the canopy, while two kereru dosed nearby.   We noticed abundant seedling and some sapling pukatea, many titoki, fuchsia and ongaonga seedlings, and numerous thickets of kiekie, all fostered by WCC’s and GWRC’s eff orts to kill goats, possums, rodents and mustelids in this Key Native Ecosystem (KNE).   Animal pest control should continue, and pest plant control should include eliminating broom, Darwin’s barberry, tutsan, wild cherry, blackberry, gorse, montbretia, and Mexican daisy.

Participants :   Bev Abbott, Rae Collins, Laura De la Rosa; Gavin Dench, Ken Fraser, Julia Fraser, Bryan Halliday, Chris Hopkins, Chris Horne (co-leader / scribe), Priscilla Isaacs, Rodney Lewington, Barbara Mitcalfe (co-leader / scribe), Kaaren Mitcalfe, Mick Parsons, Kaira Ranganui-Love, Hugh Robertson, Lea Robertson, Sunita Singh.