A trip to Maungatautari

On my recent trip to New Zealand I spent several hours visiting the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust property which is an ambitious project to "remove forever, introduced mammalian pests and predators from Maungatautari, and restore to the forest a healthy diversity of indigenous plants and animals not seen in our lifetime". You might like to find out more by going to their website here

And perhaps you will enjoy some of the photos I took.

As you first enter the Southern Enclosure you are walking on this track. With the removal of wild pigs and goats all the vegetation has a chance to grow without being constantly pruned by nibbling mammals.

You pass by plants that have become New Zealand national icons.

This photo was taken from the top of the canopy tower which is a 16 metre high platform that allows visitors to be amid the forest canopy.

This is a pair of takahe that have learned how to more easily find food.

I was looking to take photos that showed the variety of green and how there are parts of the bush that are dark and then parts that are light. This is to provide background/inspiration for a quilt I am making depicting the colors of New Zealand.

The day had been overcast and very windy but as we were leaving the sky began to clear and I looked up to take this one final photo.

Thank you to my sister K who took sister C and I to this wonderful place.