Paths not previously taken

My niece and I decided to have a girls’ day out yesterday, and she was happy to (a) let me decide the destination and (b) find a few caches on the way. The day started cool and blustery, but I decided to head up Mt Wellington anyway, because there were a couple of puzzle caches I’d solved that I didn’t think would be too hard to access.

When we arrived we checked out the little pool above the chalet that I remember from my childhood as being full of anaspides (tiny freshwater mountain shrimp), and I was pleased to see they were still there.

At this point we realised that the weather was actually quite pleasant, and so we thought we might explore some of the nearby tracks.

We followed a couple of tracks that I haven’t been on before, despite the fact that I’ve been walking on the Mountain since I was a little tacker. One of them took us past “Crocodile Rock”, shown in the photo at right, which is a big sandstone outcrop just above Junction Cabin. We also crossed some of the big “potato fields”, where massive dolerite boulders have tumbled across hectare-sized swathes of mountain side, leaving these patches largely vegetation-free and thus affording good views over the city below.

Claire really had no idea what she was letting herself in for when we set off. For starters, we probably only covered 7km but those 7km involved a total of 400m descent and a corresponding 400m ascent, including 200m uphill in about 1km. Having worked this out I now understand why both of us pulled up a “tad sore” today. Then, of course, there was my contribution to Caire’s botanical education. As we travelled through the bush I taught her the names of some very important plants, such as Blechnum watsii, Richea sprengeloides and Dicksonia antarctica … so she can impress her Grandad the next time the three of them — Claire, the appropriate plant, and my Dad — are in the same place. The only trouble was that I sounded scarily like him myself as I did so!

What with the views, the wildflowers, and other plants, there were plenty of photo opportunities. More pictures of the day can be found here.