I headed out to the Matuku Reserve in the Waitakere's for a bit of a walk and see New Zealands longest beetle - the giraffe weevils. The 120hectare reserve has tracks through native forest which pass streams, a wetland, and a large waterfall. It is full of birdlife which is credit to the work done by forest and bird with their successfull predator control programme.
To get there. You drive down Jonkers road and keep your eye out for this little lane on your left with a Forest and Bird sign. If you get to the end of jonkers you have gone too far (about 2km down the road).
Then go all the way down the lane for about 1km until you reach a carpark. When you are coming down the lane you pass the main track entrance and a nice look out point. 4WD is best down as its a bit rough.
Matuku Reserve (run by Forest and Bird). This is the entrance sign at the lookout and start of the Punawaru track.
This lookout shows an amazing view of the forest, wetland and west coast ocean in the distance.
200m down the track there is a hut which has information and a map of the different routes.
The best walk is the circuit track. Go down the Punawaru track a little, then turn left onto the Kokopu track which follows the stream before joining again with the Punawaru track following alongside the wetland. Then take the Taranga track up another stream past the big waterfall back to the carpark 2 1/2 hours.
The Punawaru and Kokopu track junction.
The Kokopu track is mainly overgrown and more like a route.
Stream crossing on the Kokopu track
The Punawaru track follows alongside the wetland.
With lots of rain the water level was really high over parts of the track
Lookout over the marsh area
The large waterfall on the Taranga track. It is a really neat area with a cool rock face
You can even walk behind the waterfall
The Taranga track can also be a bit over grown
Nikau forest in the valley below the waterfall
Lookout over the wetland
The Matuku reserve is one place that you can see giraffe weevils - New Zealands longest beetle. This is a male giraffe weevil I observed on a cut down Karaka stump.
Another male. Notice the elongated head called a rostrum
A female giraffe weevil. It lacks the long rostum of the male.
They can be very camouflaged against the bark.
A tagged weevil part of a research project being done by a PhD student.
No comments:
Post a Comment