On Wednesday, May 1, we travelled with members of the Greymouth Walking Group to the Perseverance Mine walk. This walk is just north of Reefton. Because of the distance travelled we started the walk at 11.30am.
A group of the Grey District Walkers on the road to Perseverance Mine.
The walk was on forestry roads for the most part. It went through some quite dense native bush. There were 19 walkers, including the group from Reefton. We were lucky to be able to walk this day as there had been a fair amount of rain lately, and rain was forecast for the next day.
We had to cross about three wide and fairly deep creeks.
Crossing creeks is a matter of studying the situation then picking the best route. Many people go different ways with varying results. Almost everyone on today’s walk ended up with wet feet.
These people had already crossed successfully. They seem quite interested in the efforts of those crossing.
Some of our group eating a well-earned lunch. Photo by Graham.
We stopped for lunch at 12.30pm. We usually walk for longer than one hour before having lunch, but today the trip in by car was so long, that we brought lunch forward.
A South Island Robin enjoying our company (and a few handouts).
We nearly always have photo opportunities with these delightful little birds. They are fearless and quite like our company. Of course, they like us most for the crumbs we throw to them, and the insects we disturb as we walk through the bush.
Clare on the track to Stony Creek surrounded by gorse bushes.
The last part of the track was very narrow and we had to push past prickly gorse bushes for a large part of the way. Anywhere in New Zealand’s bush where heavy machinery (bulldozers, diggers, trucks) have been, there is usually gorse. It is brought in on their tracks or tyres. In the middle of bush where there are no roads, gorse is usually not found.
Stony Creek.
I am not sure why this creek is called Stony Creek. Obviously there are stones in it, but the same can be said for just about every other river and creek on the Coast.