Waitutu

Forest and Bird, Issue 280, 1 May 1996, Page 26

Waitutu

SABINE SCHMIDT

the ultimate forest protected at last

The ancient forest of Waitutu, for many years a touchstone in the battle to conserve New Zealand’s remaining lowland forest, has been saved from the threat of logging

and will be given formal protection.

and

KEITH SWENSON pay homage to a special place that preserves a window into primeval New Zealand.

c . . . ... here the greatest stretch of lowland forest in New Zealand that has been least directly affected by man’s activities, a forest wilderness that is fascinatingly varied, contained within a splendid setting of mountains, superbly beautiful lakes and a rugged sea coast. J.L. NICHOLLS, 1976

OKE UP to the loud, melodic song of a kaka in a nearby tree. Sights and sounds of kaka in the high canopy throughout

the day. At nightfall, a morepork above our campsite." So reads the journal entry from one of our excursions into the Waitutu Forest. Waitutu is the largest remaining relatively unchanged lowland forest in New Zealand. It is not entirely pristine; the southeast corner has been logged, the understorey has been subject to deer and pigs, and rats and stoats kill native wildlife. But possum numbers are still relatively low and the forest retains a wealth of native birdlife,

particularly rare species such as kaka, yellowhead, yellow-crowned parakeet and robin. With its many southern rata, mistletoe, fuchsia and podocarps, including stands of almost pure rimu, the forest provides a rich food source for these and other birds such as bellbirds, tui and tomtits. It’s the birds that stay in your mind, in particular their abundance. Kaka, more common in Waitutu than anywhere else on the mainland, seem ever-present. In the mornings and evenings their calls merge with the those of kea from nearby ridges, as if kaka and kea were engaged in some vocal duel. In winter it is the heavy wingbeat of kereru, or the common sight of tui — up to seven in a single tree — that

@ Waitutu

you remember. Or in summer: robins and parakeets, the latter rarely seen up close but often heard. Trying to make out birds in the canopy, one realises the great height of the trees. Standing next to the wide base of a centuries-old rimu, we are dwarfed by the enormity of the trunk. It’s hard not to feel respect in the presence of the giants. In many areas the forest is quite open due to the effects of deer grazing, but in other parts making your way is slow and arduous. Like in any old-growth forest,

huge trunks of fallen trees, moss-covered and carrying young seedlings, form green barriers; swamps need to be skirted and stream gullies crossed. And often you want to pause to look at the details — sunlight shining through the thin fronds of kidney ferns, the beautiful patterns of podocarp barks, or a climbing rata on the dark stem of a tree fern. Even more so in summer time, when the many shades of green are supplemented by the colours of flowering plants and young ferns.

There are patches of red on the forest floor, from the fine stamens and petals of southern rata. Above, their blooms are like red clouds in the green canopy. Mistletoe is also in flower; often, in tall forest, you are only alerted to its presence by the fallen flowers, their red standing out against the ground or dark bark at the base of a beech tree.

Geological uplift has led to a remarkable "staircase in time"- a half-million-year-old flight of marine terraces chiselled by the sea out of soft mudstones. On these terraces, as they have been raised from the sea, the forest has grown in a great patchwork quilt. The terraces are the best surviving examples of a once-widespread and significant component of the New Zealand natural landscape. The youngest terrace is still forming today as the waves wear back the 30-metre cliffs and a rock platform extends hundreds of metres off-shore. A journey through this sequence is as hard-going as it is rewarding. After crossing the coastal terrace, we ascend through mixed silver beech-podocarp forest. In the lower regions, a dense carpet of crown fern makes progress slow. On higher terraces or ridges, yellow-silver pine, pink pine and mountain beech form dense, almost-impenetrable, scrub. The low canopy here allows for the first views back onto the Southern Ocean — a silver sea merging with the sky, Solander Island seemingly suspended in the mist, and Stewart Island in the distance to the southeast. On reaching the higher beech forest, the climb becomes easier. The forest is open and the floor covered in thick moss.

Higher still, the beech trees are stunted and heavy with moss and lichens. East of the marine terraces on Hump Ridge, the treeline region is an open, park-like landscape, with flax and tussock grasses and yellow spots of Bulbinella among lichen-covered beech. Finally the last trees give way to open country with subalpine Dracophyllum, to bogs with cushion plants and small fields of sundew, and to alpine tarns and picturesque rock formations. From the Hump Ridge tussocklands we look down over rugged ridges to the wide expanse of the lowland bush and to the coast of western Southland. At high tide, the distant thunder of the sea can be heard; at low water, the wide tidal flats reach far seawards off the steep headlands.

The large, distinctive rivers of the Wairaurahiri and Waitutu flow fast and clear to the sea from deep Fiordland lakes. Along the steep gravel river banks, forest reaches to the water’s edge. The smaller lowland streams cut deep gullies into the mudstone as they near the coast. A typical sight from the viaducts and swing-bridges is that of tea coloured water deep below in pools and potholes carved from the grey stone. With the restoration of the historic viaducts along its hundred-year-old coastal trail, Waitutu forest is becoming more popular with trampers wishing to experience this ancient lowland wilderness — one of the most inspiringly beautiful places in New Zealand if not the world.

SABINE SCHMIDT and KEITH SWENSON are members of the New Zealand Nature Institute, a non-profit environmental education trust. They carried out a photo-documentation of the Waitutu region to raise awareness of this unique area and the threats to it. The project was funded by the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board and the Environmental Grants scheme of the Ministry for the Environment. MacPac Wilderness Equipment provided a tent. An exhibition of Sabine and Keith’s Waitutu images was held at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery in March. Further locations for the exhibition are being organised around the country.