Let’s look a bit further at the surrounding area near the pillar of earth from my last post. It was a rough patch of ground with rabbit holes scattered everywhere. As I walked about, the rabbits themselves would take fright and run about helter skelter. Rose bushes were scattered around everywhere too; they’re wild and seem to be as numerous as the rabbits. At this time of year the roses sport both flowers and rosehips. I don’t recall seeing much thyme at this site but it grows like a carpet in many parts of Central Otago, thriving in the dry arid places that nothing else will grow on. This post continues Setting Boundaries
Bannockburn, Central Otago, New Zealand. Photos taken 20 April 2018
Rough Landscape
The pillar from my last post was on the edge of what appeared to be a very large area of public domain land. I wandered around, curious to get a close look at the features left from the days of gold rush sluicing.
The ‘wedding cake’ shape in this photo is probably another remnant that would’ve held a boundary peg in the old days. Notice the rabbit holes!
Here are some steep cliff and slope areas that look like old sluicing sites
In the next photo you can see a path at the base of the cliff. I didn’t have time to follow it on this trip but I’m keen to explore it next time!
Roses
Where I saw big round oval-shaped bushes they would turn out to be wild roses.
Rabbits
The rose area had got increasingly steep and rugged and I decided to walk back to the village. I slipped through an open slot in a fence and walked across a large open field that was grazed very bare. I was incredulous at the number of rabbit holes and rabbit droppings – they were just simply everywhere! Nigel tells me that four rabbits will eat the equivalent of a sheep, no wonder they’re a farmer’s nightmare.
Rabbit droppings …
Text and Photos by Liz; Exploring Colour (2018)
Exploring Colour 
Oh my word, we hear about the invasive rabbits, but now I can see for myself what a nightmare they are.
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They take over everything!
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What delicate blossoms on the rose bushes! I’m guessing the rabbits don’t want to eat those or they would be gone, too. Those ball bearings could really send you flying!
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The wild roses are very attractive in Central Otago and particularly so when they’re covered in bright red rosehips. The ball bearings all over the ground don’t make for the most comfortable of walking!
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“Going down the rabbit hole” takes on a whole new meaning in Bannockburn. That is a lot of fertilizer! Hope you had your wellies on or stepped very carefully. There must be hundreds of rabbits there and probably all related. Love the wild roses and the landscape photos are amazing. Thank-you!
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Hahaha – I wore shoes actually! The rabbit droppings are dry and are like ball bearings!
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…and a nightmare for a golf course… 😉
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Yes, I suppose it is! I wonder how many golf balls pop down rabbit holes never to return?
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🙂
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I think you need a few of our local predators.
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It’d be nice if an idiot farmer way back in the old days hadn’t DELIBERATELY released rabbits into Central Otago so that he could have some hunting. I was just reading a couple of days ago that his farm became uneconomic in his own lifetime and he had to sell out. No doubt the same happened to the neighbours!
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I had heard that before. The number of times that has been done is mind boggling. In South Carolina hunters let a ‘Russian’ wild boar breed loose, pythons from pet stores are rampant in swamps south of us, even small pet lizards are causing havoc.
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