Sunday 29 June 2025

Leader: Tony Quayle

We had 21 signups for the Maharahara Crossing, and a carefully prepared transport plan, but the weather didn’t play ball. It would’ve been a lot of driving for the sake of a damp day in the bush.

That disappointed our fabulous fungi fotographers (FFFs) a bit though, as they’d had high hopes of finding a treasure trove of colourful mushrooms and related species amongst that damp bush. Then JP saved the day, suggesting we instead meet for breakfast at Relish in Waikanae and then go fungi finding in the equally damp Hemi Matenga bush. A few decided Hemi Matenga damp isn’t any better than Maharahara damp, but we still ended up with twelve on the walk. It should be noted here that Jacqui, one of our furthest-away members, was so tempted by Relish that even though it would’ve meant a two hour drive each way she almost chose to join us.

Suitably well-fed, we joined a couple of other members on Tui Crescent and launched into the 400 metre trap line climb to the ridge top. Squeals and shrieks of delight soon filled the air, as our FFFs spotted all manner of fungal delights. It is truly amazing what a Samsung Galaxy A15 5G or S25 Ultra phone with its five lenses can do, let alone Bruce’s whiz bang camera.

For the record, fungi species caught on camera included mycelia clarkeana, onion stalk parasol, orange pore fungus, wax caps, earth stars, mycetinis curraniae, gliophorus lilacipes, trooping crumble caps, austral drooping bonnet, flame fungus, ear fungus and the tongue twisting glioxanthomyses chromolimoneus.

Further north along the ridge top we enjoyed views of the coast, the Tararua Ranges, and saw some goats. A quicker trip back via the Parata Track completed another enjoyable Parawai walk.

Those on the trip were:

Bruce Wang, Gordon Balfour, John Glover, John Peterson, Kate Livingston, Marian Cox, Nisa Promchot, Owen Cox, Rob Dey, Tony Quayle, Yingjun Shelton, Ben Quayle