Today we were the only gluttons for punishment left after lunch working in the veritable monsoon that seems to befall usually sunny Marlborough on Tuesdays...only Tuesdays for some reason, but I bet this pattern is only temporary. Julie wisely donned full rain regalia but I stubbornly stuck to my shorts as the day got progressively wetter and windier, to the point that I was getting slightly nutty by the end, sloshing around in my boots. We worked on either side of the vines plucking pinot noir leaves add nauseum. We sang a duet of "Somewhere over the vineyard", and I kept talking about Gondwanaland, mostly just repeating the word because I love the sound of it. Walking through a New Zealand forest always makes me think of what Gondwanaland must have been like. Gondwanaland was the ancient southern continent that broke apart millions of years ago. They say that many of NZ's plant species have remained relatively unchanged since this time. A topic I'd really like to expand on...but, more exciting and important than this is what we did over the weekend...
Here, Julie gazes down at the hut we stayed in on Sat. night up at 1600 meters. Thats nearly 6000 feet for us Americans. What a climb! We started out in beautiful beech forest along a stream, then followed the streambed into the alpine zone where the trees gave way to grasses and a fantastic diversity of alpine plants the likes of which neither of us had seen before. More about this in a bit. But we finally made it to the hut after 6 hrs, then had a big hummus, cheese and pita lunch followed by some chillin'and swimmin'in the lake you see in the photo. It was chilly but not nearly as chilly as one would think given that it was frozen only a month ago!
The hut is popular and was jam packed with trampers, but it was worth it. Best of all, we couldn't have had it much better weatherwise. The next day we walked back a different way--along a ridge with spectacular views of mountain ranges from all sides. Excellent visability.
Here, Julie gazes down at the hut we stayed in on Sat. night up at 1600 meters. Thats nearly 6000 feet for us Americans. What a climb! We started out in beautiful beech forest along a stream, then followed the streambed into the alpine zone where the trees gave way to grasses and a fantastic diversity of alpine plants the likes of which neither of us had seen before. More about this in a bit. But we finally made it to the hut after 6 hrs, then had a big hummus, cheese and pita lunch followed by some chillin'and swimmin'in the lake you see in the photo. It was chilly but not nearly as chilly as one would think given that it was frozen only a month ago!The hut is popular and was jam packed with trampers, but it was worth it. Best of all, we couldn't have had it much better weatherwise. The next day we walked back a different way--along a ridge with spectacular views of mountain ranges from all sides. Excellent visability.
OK, now here's something for all you botany AND coral nuts out there.
If you think this is just another lame close-up shot of a coral head, you're wrong! This is in fact an alpine plant that was very common on our hike...but it has an uncanny resemblance to coral. What does this mean, you ask? Nothing, but isn't it neat? I really wanted to know what this was after our hike, and found out that it is called vegetable sheep. Terrible name. But, at least this allowed me to google it and learn a bit more:
If you think this is just another lame close-up shot of a coral head, you're wrong! This is in fact an alpine plant that was very common on our hike...but it has an uncanny resemblance to coral. What does this mean, you ask? Nothing, but isn't it neat? I really wanted to know what this was after our hike, and found out that it is called vegetable sheep. Terrible name. But, at least this allowed me to google it and learn a bit more: "Some of the most striking plants on rocky mountains are the vegetable sheep, or species of Raoulia, belonging to the Compositae family. The apt name, vegetable sheep, is principally applied to R. mammillaris and R. eximia, which as densely compacted, rounded cushion plants grow to several feet across and sometimes 2 ft high. R. eximia occurs in the Southern Alps from about mid-Canterbury southwards and the white colour of its flowers and also of the hairy covered leaves gives it the appearance, from a distance, of sheep. The cushions are formed by a multiplicity of branches, the ends of each branch being covered with the small woolly leaves. The stems and leaves are packed into a dense, hard, rounded mass. The inside of the cushion rots to form a spongy peat and into this the living branchlets send roots."
I will leave you with that!
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