Hinewai Reserve

I drove over to Akaroa today, and visited Hinewai Reserve, a very beautiful private nature reserve on Banks Peninsula.  It's an ecological restoration project, privately owned and managed by the Maurice White Native Forest Trust, but freely open to the public, on foot only. It occupies 1250 nectares in the south-eastern corner of Banks Peninsula, on the South Island's east coast.
We should have walked through some of it the week before last, but Cyclone Gita put paid to our last day, and we got evacuated off the track.

So, today has partly made up for it, but I'll be going back again. 
I heard and saw many native birds, the bush (forest) is absolutely beautiful, and I was in awe at the size of the kanuka and kahikitea. Some of them are huge! There were several waterfalls, that I made side trips to see, but it was a fairly long day, all in all. I walked the steep downhill on the East Track, via the Boundary Falls, then to the Wairua Falls, and back up again. 8.2kms.
The waterfall I've blipped is the Wairua Falls, but also in Extras are the Boundary Falls, a wonderful puffball which I've not been able to identify, plus a very dark image of a fantail - I thought that ISO1250 was sufficient, but not so! I've had to lighten it considerably.

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