A Walk on the Wild Side at Hereweka

After leaving the flower and vegetable gardens we headed into the Gondwanaland wilderness area. [Note: this post continues yesterday’s exploration of Hereweka Gardens, Otago Peninsula, Dunedin, New Zealand. Garden visited Sunday 29 Oct 2017]

Native tree ferns are bursting into growth

and their graceful fronds create beautiful effects

 

Photo (above) shows a nikau palm in the foreground, a tree fern behind, and a fuzz of tea-tree foliage up on the ridge above

Photo (below) gives you an idea of the “wild side”. Flax, nikau palm and tree ferns are the most obvious flora in the photo

We left the open area and headed into a tea-tree woodland with a green understorey

I even found the iconic New Zealand silver fern which is another type of tree fern. You can see the lovely silver-white colour on the underside of the fern frond (below)

The next photos show the tea-tree woodland. This was a wonderfully peaceful and tranquil space, and lovely and cool on a hot day

Looking down by the walking track, I enjoyed seeing this lovely little native fern growing densely by the track. Blechnum penna-marina. Its a tough customer, growing from coastal to alpine conditions

Another tea-tree area that we walked through on our way back to the house. We were amazed at the thick carpet of detritus shed by these trees

After emerging from the woodland I admired this fabulous abstract art, worked entirely by nature

Thank you for reading! Tomorrow I’ll wrap up the Hereweka Gardens story by sharing what I found on the way back to the house and carpark.

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If you would like to know more about Hereweka Garden and the owners you can visit this page on their website

Text and photos by Exploring Colour (2017)