earby
Castle Hill has a number of cave drawings and these are said to be about
500 years old. Drawn with a mixture of charcoal and fat these may have
been drawn by moa-hunters for no other reason than to fill in time while
sheltering from the weather.
Castle Hill is also known for its flowers. Here a number
of plants have adapted to the limestone 'moonscape' of the periglacial
zone and some of these are natives. Best known among them is the Castle
Hill buttercup - a spectacular plant with large golden flowers growing
on shortened stems among brown-green leaves. To the west of Castle Hill is the Craigiebum Range
and, as in all other parts of the Southern Alps, the surrounding tree
cover is beech mountain beech predominating but with patches of silver
and red. Around the 1100-metre mark this gives way to sub-alpine scrub
but the speciality of the region is its alpine plants. Beyond the Craigiebum there is little cover. Much of
the land was devastated by early settlers burning off the tussock to
create grazing for their sheep. This resulted in scree and shingle slipping
off the hillsides into the valleys and riverbeds below and much of this
material has ended up in Lake Pearson. The lake today is completely
surrounded by eroded hills and although the Forest Service is in the
process of replanting these hills, the job is immense. 
The lake itself contains rainbow and brown trout, and
one of our rarest waterfowl, the beautiful crested grebe. It is the
most aquatic of our birds, its legs being set so far back on its body
that it can neither stand nor walk on land and so it must live, breed
and nest on the water. This bird has gone into a steep decline in recent years
and now numbers only about 250 birds. This has been caused by predators,
hunting and probably by being disturbed by speedboats. Other grebes to be found in these lakes are the Australian
little grebe and the hoary-headed grebe, also known as Tom Pudding.
Both are rare vagrants from Australia but it is hoped they will become
established here. From Porters Pass our route takes us down through Springfield
which brings us back onto the Canterbury plains. Not far past Sheffield
we turn right onto Highway 72 which takes us along the foothills of
the alps. Highway 72 eventually brings us out to the Rakaia,
one of the largest of the braided rivers. Near here Thomas Potts spent
some time exploring and in April 1856 he found the South Island kokako
still plentiful along the banks of the Rakaia:
Under favourable conditions the kokako may be found
on the outskirts of the bush, in the open glades that fringe some
of the larger rivers. The gentle confident manners, the rich flute-like
notes, the peculiar mode of progression even, cannot fail to draw
the attention of the observer
The piopio, which vanished even faster than the kokako,
was another favourite of Potts and was then still plentiful around here.
Most early observers noted how forward it was. For Potts the piopio
was 'as bold as the robin or tit without their intrusive friendliness., From the charmingly named town of Windwhlstle you might
like to follow the road west along the Rakaia to Lake Coleridge, but
because the lake is too deep and cold to support much birdlife a better
proposition is probably the Ashburton Lakes, which lie south of the
Rakaia and can be reached by following the road up the Ashburton River
from Mt Somers. These lakes lie on the bottom of glaciated basins and
hence they are shallow and better suited to waterfowl. They are also
surrounded by extensive wetlands and areas of red tussock, bog rush
and Carex, which makes them attractive to swamp dwellers such as bitterns
and crake. Best known of these is Lake Heron and although its namesake
the kotuku, or white heron, is a rare visitor, 20 other species of waterfowl
can also be found here, including the crested grebe, the dapper black
teal, the wrybill plover and the recently arrived Australian coot. Not so popular with the farmers who live in this area
are the large numbers of Canada geese which nest around the lakes and
fly out to feed in the surrounding farmlands, grazing on the pasture
and fouling the Paddocks. Also found here is another introduced bird,
the chukar partridge. About 15 pairs of chukar were liberated in the
Lake Heron district in 1926 and the following year a further 25 birds
were released near Lake Hawea. Different races, one from Persia (now
Iran), and the other from the Himalayas, were released at the opposite
ends of the Alps and so far these seem to be breeding true. From Lake Heron we return to the main road and continue
south. At Arundel on the Rangitata River there is a turn-off to Mesopotamia
Station where the author Samuel Butler farmed from 1860 to 1864. His
book A First Year in Canterbury Settlement is well worth reading
for the insight it provides into early colonial life. |
