Life in New Zealand with a Stroke

by David G. Ray

Our Stroke Club had its first March meeting with a very interesting and entertaining talk by a lady who, with her husband, had spent 4 months traveling around Turkey. This retired couple, in their sixties, had traveled with a minimum of clothing etc, had stayed in backpackers accommodation and traveled on local transport throughout the journey. They had been to many ancient and historic sites and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the Turkish countryside. The speaker had a great sense of humor and her experiences of many amusing instances keep us, her audience, very much entertained.

Last Tuesday we had our half-year picnic in the Otari Bush Gardens. This is an outdoor museum devoted to native New Zealand plants and trees some of which are very rare. Being a young country, early settlers cleared native forests to create cleared land for farms, towns etc. As a consequence many plants were lost or their number and availability reduced. The Otari Bush Gardens has over 10 kilometers of walking tracks with plenty of areas to sit and view the trees and plants.

There are 100 hectares of forest made up of original and regenerating conifer broadleaf forest. Large conifers such as native rimu, totara, miro and matari can be viewed from a canopy walkway or on nature trails. There are about 150 species of flowering plants, conifers and ferns found throughout the forest. Perching plants sit high in the branches of mature trees. Climbing plants, including the New Zealand passion fruit, supple jack, and rata occur throughout the forest.

Kohekohe, rewarewa, tawa and mahoe trees dominate the upper slopes and merge with forest remains of older rimu and matai. In the valley areas tall pukatea can be seen with buttressed roots spanning streams or growing in wetter areas. On high south facing slopes, scrub is dominated by introduced gorse and Darwin barberry with colonizing native plants such as mahoe and rangiora.

The park has been cleared as far as is possible of possums, which have been introduced from Australia, and from aggressive weeds such as Old Man's Beard and Tradecantia. It was a very enjoyable and informative day for our members. We enjoyed our lunch and our drive into Wellington where the park is situated. We were lucky that it was a beautiful sunny autumn day.

Read about Otari Bush Gardens

The Stroke Network, Inc.

P.O. Box 492 Abingdon, Maryland 21009