Have just found this draft which was started late last year, so I thought I should finish it.
In November I spent a week near the Waitakere Ranges just north of Auckland, and had the opportunity for some lovely bush walks.
Paddocks and regenerating forest – Manuka a nursery species. Ponga, tree ferns, Kauri alongside the track.
Close up of Kauri bark. Gorgeous!
Crossed this stream. Typical of the bush streams in the area. This one is near civilisation.
Definitely not in the bush! Planted at the entrance to a property. Looks like a Black Eyed Susan vine Thunbergia alata.
Kawakawa , Macrocarpa excelsum– lovely holes in the leaves from it’s friendly co-habitant, the Kawakawa looper moth caterpillar.
I managed to find some pigments – mainly hard clay, and some small clay pebbles, rounded by the running stream water. I’ve never seen these before, was quite a surprise. Because they are wet, the colour comes off on to your fingers, and you can easily mark another harder surface. I thought perhaps that could have started the use of clay as paint…
Celia Wilson 