My visitor from New Plymouth arrived yesterday and may doubt that the sun shines at all on Stewart Island. We've had grey skies with rain/showers since he arrived and the outside temperature was cool enough to light the fire. It's now cosy and warm inside and whilst my visitor watches 'Blacklist' on tv, I'll put up a blog to prove that the sun does shine.
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Bragg Bay at bottom left, with track winding around the coast to
Dead Man Beach at top right |
We started our walk from Bragg Bay and wandered up the hill, past the trig and down to Sarah Cove. This beautiful wee bay sparkles on a sunny day with crystal clear water reflecting the blues and greens of the sky and vegetation.
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| Sarah Cove looking beautiful in the sunshine |
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| Looking back to Bragg Bay |
The track winds through coastal bush before a steep downhill section that comes out on Dead Man Beach. It's a great place to throw sticks for the dog, have a picnic or just to explore. The track continues round to a second trig on Horseshoe Point but we were short of time and walked back the way we came, checking out the orchids on the way. We saw several clumps of
Earina autumnalis with flower buds, but one tree trunk stretching over the track had jumped the gun and was smothered with these orchids in full flower.
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| Earina autumnalis close to flowering |
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| Flowering Easter orchid Earina autumnalis |
Another large clump just about to come into flower was by the side of the track - if you're lucky enough to be on Rakiura in the next couple of weeks then it's well worth the walk, just follow your nose as this orchid is sweetly scented.
Two other visitors appeared at home - the first a whitetail bambi...
...and the other a stick insect on the ranchslider - perhaps an
Acanthoxyla spp. He/she was a very patient model and kept still so that I could get some close-up photos. The wispy bits around its face are bits of cobweb that I hadn't been able to remove. Isn't it a cutie!!
Finally, a wee skite over my rhubarb - how's this for an impressive harvest? The longest stem was 620mm (over a metre if I included the leaf! I stewed it with just a teaspoon of cinnamon (no sugar) and then made caramel crusted rhubarb crumble last night, very yummy.
