Maraetotara Valley, Mohi Bush and the Ferocious Ongaonga

On a lovely fine 24 degree Tuesday in mid April, we decided that I would make Bookshop Cafe muffins & that we would head out to the Maraetotara valley for an autumn adventure. We soon realised that we hadn't been up this way since the cyclone & we found (to use an Aboriginal term) a sorry river- a very sorry river & valley indeed.

Although it's not so apparent in the photos.

So much destruction and sickness and fleabane and rough terrain.

Even the Kawkawa was desperately suffering and had developed black sooty mould.

When we looked down to our next step along a very bumpy riverside trail and saw a dead cow, we realised we needed to leave this place. We scrambled up the 20 metre vertical bank to the road (grabbing handfuls of grass as we went) & met the cow rescuers at the top. Oh how sad- the cows were being moved down the road this morning when an impatient person drove past too quickly scaring the poor darling and causing her to leap down the 20 metre bank- to her death.

On we drove, only to meet a herd of rather beautiful cattle, also being moved down the road.

We pulled over, turned off the engine & waited patiently.

A lovely autumn rural view out one car window

and a cow's back end out the other!

After the cows had passed by I realised there was a large wild cape gooseberry plant randomly growing right here.

Soon enough we drove on again and here we were, halfway to Mohi bush when we began to spot ripe banana passionfruit hanging from vines all along the roadside. People get a bit hysterical about this stuff here in Aotearoa- but we loved them as kids. It's now illegal to sell the fruit or plants or even to propagate itin most areas. So I figure we were performing a valuable public service when we stopped to gather dozens of ripe fruit from the wild. The only trick was that the road was narrow & there weren't many ideal places to stop. We were still feeling gutted about the poor cow, when we saw more golden glory waving in the breeze. Rob was assigned to getaway duty & I plunged in to the undergrowth to gather up the fallen fruit. Just at that moment a little car tootled around the corner & screeched to a sudden halt. "Are you alright?", she cried? Lifting my hands full of passionfruit splendour I cried back, "Absolutely fine, thank you for asking- just collecting banana passionfruit". Oh, that's ok then. Thought I'd better ask." And off she whizzed leaving us giggling as she sounded just like Dame Kate Harcourt from days gone by. I swear that was the very car...

You can see the short film "Sweet As" featuring Kate Harcourt just here.

Oh and there were pinecones so we filled two sacks full.

An unusual tree to see in a paddock- a money puzzle.

Interesting country abode with another spare seven vehicles.

Eventually we ended up at Mohi Bush Scenic Reserve where we had our afternoon tea

enjoying the profound peace of the countryside.

Bookshop Cafe Savoury Muffins make perfect picnic food.

Lots of rocky bits up here- look a turret.

The resilience of mullein- growing in limestone rock.

This native rongoa (medicinal plant) tataramoa is also known as bush lawyer and this particular variant seems unique to the area to me. There's not a lot of it here so I harvest sparingly. This plant is happy growing up in to the boughs of a titoki tree.  

The native nettle ongaonga is extremely abundant up here so great caution is required. It must be the stingiest stuff ever and we don't want to test that theory- ever. It can kill you if you were to fall in to a patch. Fortunately we don't have many truly deadly things in our forests. Eventually ongaonga (urtica ferox) forms stiff, prickly shrubs.
It's good to know what the seedlings look like as these were found right on the edge of the forest path- lying in wait for uncovered ankles. It's amazing to think that our endemic red and yellow emperor butterflies have been so smart as to employ the protection of these feisty plants to keep their pupae safe from predators. 

There's a lot of miro, matai and rewarewa trees in the forest. There must also be tawa as I found a berry on the ground.

A magical forest.

The light is amazing coming through these trees in late afternoon, adding a sparkling reverence to the walk.

The tracks are pretty wide and easily walked and well kept too.

There's always fungi to find in the forest- just to observe.

So nice to see a rimu through here. The draping effect and brighter green given them away.

Kawakawa The Holey one!!

I think we nearly got lost (the sign posts were ambiguous) but we could see footprints in the mud so we kept going up this way. I think it was a dry-ish river bed. Probably not the route to take after rain.

Pigeonwood with unripe berries that are apparently toxic ripe or not.

Lovely to see horopito in the understory. Known as the New Zealand pepper tree. It is a nicely spicy culinary native, but also has some useful medicinal attributes. I read once of a woman badly injuring her knee while tramping and in great pain she nibbled on horopito leaves finding relief sufficient that she was able to walk out to safety on her own. I'm not sure I have ever seen the flower buds before. Apparently eventually red berries will appear.

Quite a bit of the walk involves traversing farmland that is peppered with native trees in quite a different habitat like these two miro. Well I think they're miro. We are still learning. So if you're thinking "she doesn't know what she's talking about", you might be quite right so please do give me a hand.

A view out to sea!

Country landscapes are so pleasingly rustic.

A rather nicely symmetrical miro, I think.

Well I guess docking is to help with preventing fly blow and she seems happy enough, so tails are a go around here. Docking habits on large farms are now so entrenched you could be forgiven for forgetting that sheep are born with tails!

Along this bush margin there's a pronounced presence of ongaonga. There'll be no stumbling in to the bush from this side, that's for sure. I did catch a waft of exquisite fragrance that apparently may have belonged to a native orchid, so perhaps ongaonga is a super protector, not just an aggressor.

No, do not touch!!

And the seeds.

I'm afraid I do find these signs quite confusing on many occasions, but I think we've got the gist of the Mohi pathways now.

It's aways such a different journey heading home. Lots of pockets of native bush up in the Maraetotara valley.

Treasure. I gave most of them away.

Our elderly friend Audrey, who once lived across the street, told me a story once of living in Wanganui as a child and how her mother would bottle the banana passionfruit that they foraged from the thicket growing at the back of the property. I should imagine that a coal range was involved in the process. So after years of loving these wild fruits, but finding them pretty tart, I cooked some and oh my- what a transformation! And yes they need to be sweetened too.