The Party :  Ernie Corbett, John Dodunski, Claire Francis, Margaret Menzies, Kristy and Ian St George, Ian Townsend, Brian and Judith Tyler, Glyn Wren.

The gathering point was to be Te Paki but we all took different routes to get there and return.  

This is how the trip went for Brian, Judith and Ian.  

I was picked up in Levin at 7.45a.m. (18 Oct 06)  by the Tylers and we headed north.  A brief stop at Taihape and then on and across the Desert Road.  We noticed a column of steam coming from the northern shoulder of Tongariro as we approached, but by the time we got closer it had all dissipated.  

At the "orchid bend" we stopped to check on the Nematoceras and found plants in seed, but the fruit was sitting right down on the leaf, no extended stalk.  We went on past Lake Taupo with the kowhais all brilliant yellow.  

Called in to see Bruce Irwin in Tauranga and at his suggestion visited the Te Puna Quarry where the planted exotic Dendrobiums and Cymbidiums were at their peak of flowering. We carried on north and stayed the night at Ngatea and on the road again by 7.30 the next morning.  

We dropped in to Papakura to see Eric and Gloria and our next orchid stop was Dome Forest. 
The path up the hill was quite productive with swards of Pterostylis graminea each side of the first steps and good clumps of P. banksii in flower higher up.  Acianthus sinclarii was in late seed, mostly with split capsules.  

We got to Whangarei in good time so continued north, detouring briefly to Kawakawa to see their lurid loos. This road took us through Moerewa and then north again to Kerikeri and on to Mangonui for the night.

Next morning the weather gave us a very murky start to the day.  The only bright thing about it was the pink and blue paint on the houses.  At Taipa we turned inland on Oruru Road to Peria -
a road which soon turned Brian's car into a mobile ball of mud.  

We were looking for Dangen Road - a place where Brian Molloy used to go orchiding.  It would have been easy if someone had told us "you turn at the saleyards", but with all the hubbub of a sale in progress we sailed past until we got on to tar seal again.  It was tempting to carry on on this carpet but we knew we had over-shot, so back through the mud and slush to the saleyards, and there was the elusive sign!  (At least we saw some nice epiphytic orchids in the Puriri and Taraire trees).  About 5 kms along Dangen Road we saw orchid-like areas in the scrub and caught up with flowering Microtis (probably parviflora, and Thelymitra sp. in seed.
(Apparently, at the very end of the road there is a DoC reserve, but we didn't know that at the time).

Our next stop was Lake Ohia where there are stumps of 30,000 year old kauri trees.  Around these stumps were plants of Thelymitra malvina, but I did not see good flowers for a photo.  Bright pink T. carnea was in bloom and Microtis parviflora quite plentiful.  

(On a later visit, following John's advice we found Cryptostylis subulata (Fig. below) flowering
amongst the rushes.  We also saw the very tiny Petalochilus alata, the seed capsules looking
more like moss spore-capsules, being only a few inches high).

We headed on to Kaitaia, crammed more supplies into the car and made a bee-line for Te Paki.  
We did manage to stop on the way at Te Kao for huge ice creams decorated with pink alligators on top!  Local people were water blasting the war memorial in honour of the new Maori King who was due to arrive tomorrow.  Brian tried to get them to clean the car as well, it needed it! At Te Paki we had barely got food etc loaded into kitchen cupboards when John and Ernie arrived.  Then Margaret, Glyn and Claire appeared and we all headed down to Waitiki Landing for the evening meal. Ian St.G and Kristy turned up then, completing the team.  

Saturday, 21 Oct 06:   Ian and Kristy "did their own thing" for the day.  The rest of us jumped at the opportunity to visit the North Cape Scientific Reserve.  We were all aboard Ed Smith's DoC 4WD and John's Suzuki.  It's a long way out there and had there been a shower of rain the track could become "very interesting".  As it was we had no trouble driving right to the old serpentine quarry - a big hole left in the landscape.

We began finding orchids straight away - tantalising Thelymitra of the longifolia complex.  One of the longifolia group that may be T. colensoi (T. intermedia in NOJ) had a tall stalk of twenty-three flowers, twelve of which were fully open - a marvellous sight, even if they were plain white.  When it comes to names for this longifolia complex, I think it depends on what school you came from as to whether you call them "pink", "stunted" or just "don't know"!  We also found "Darkie" unopened.

John had amazing eye sight that could penetrate the dense ground-hugging scrub to see underneath it,  Plumatichilos tasmanicum flowering and Cyrtostylis oblongus with tall seed stalks. We also saw Acianthus sinclarii with spent seed capsules, and a bright mauve Thelymitra colensoi.

There were lots of plants of special botanical interest in the "scrub", many restricted to this isolated ultramafic environment.  Also of high conservation value were the unique land snails, Placostylus ambagiosus michiei, which were literally being hammered by birds using the many stones as anvils to smash the smaller ones.  Ed assured me they are going to build some "exclusion areas".

We had lunch at the top of the Surville Cliffs watching gannets flying west in vee's far below.  Then we browsed our way back down the track until Ed returned to pick us up, having gone off to inspect a stranded Orca.  Back at the Spirits Bay turnoff we found a bright blue Thelymitra aemula, our last find for the day.

However, the tale would not be complete without a mention of Ian and Kristy's activities, as told; truthfully I'm sure; by Kristy.  Ian took off at the rate of knots through the Hakea, his long legs well protected by tuff long trousers.  Kristy had shorts and in no time had blood trickling down her legs.  "I wish I had put my track-pants in", she wailed.  Further bush bashing and Kristy's boots were fast filling with blood.  Then Ian made a discovery - "Oh, I've got your track pants in my pack"! She did not relate the rest of the conversation!  I'm sure Ian will follow on with their orchid finds.  

Sunday, 22 Oct 06:  Next morning, was an early start for us all to get along the northern section of Ninety Mile Beach before the tide cut us off.  We got to Te Paki stream and found some youths with their car firmly bogged.  This caused an unexpected delay as John drove to the rescue and got them mobile.  We just managed to sneak along the beach to the parking area at Scott Point before salt water covered the sand.  Then there was a huff and puff as we climbed 150-odd steps up to the plateau.  Ian and Kristy left us in the dust as they seemed to be racing each other to the top.

 We had a light misty shower and then the sun shone opening the Thelymitra for us.  There were all the forms of longifolia (Figs. 15, 20, 21, Back Cover) and a lovely blue "rough leaf" - and yes, the leaf is rough, almost like grass to the touch.  

There was Acianthus, Corybas cheesemanii in seed, also Microtis arenaria, parviflora and unifolia. The main flush of Caladenia flowers was over, but there were still plenty of C. bartlettii and
C. minor.   

The tide retreated and so did we by mid afternoon, leaving time for a visit to Rubbish Dump Hill.  There we found many plants of tall-growing Thelymitra aff. longifolia in full flower. At first we thought they might be T. tholiformis but later the column showed they were quite unlike anything in the Guide.

Monday, 23 Oct 06:   We awoke on Monday morning to drenching rain.  Ernie and John were the first to get restless feet and puddled off out to see what could be found in the Shenstone.  By mid morning there were definite signs of improvement in the water so we were all tempted out.  

Down by the stream at the start of the track we found a Singularybas (Matthews's "aestivalis") in seed.  Further along the track, also in seed were Corybas cheesemanii, Molloybas cryptanthus and Cyrtostylis reniformis.  We saw flowering clumps of Simpliglottis cornuta and one nice flower on Calochilus aff. herbaceus.  

Brian, Judith and I went on the side track north to see Anne Fraser's Thelymitra matthewsii area, but no plants visible now, just her markers.  John photographed a beautiful green gecko with yellow stripes and a red mouth.  Back to base for a late lunch.  

Then Brian, Judith and I went to Spirits Bay.  We saw flowering plants of Thelymitra sanscilia that Margaret and Ernie told us about, or we thought we did, but they must have been different ones, because when we checked the column, our ones were not sanscilia.  On our return we found John, Ernie and "the girls" hove to by some manuka scrub.  We investigated and were shown a nice patch of flowering Calochilus aff.  herbaceus.  

Tuesday, 24 Oct 06:   Clean up, pack up and on the road by 8.30am with a final farewell deluge as we loaded the car.  Nothing new to report until we stopped on the south side of the Mangamuka Saddle to look for Nematoceras rivulare.  The usual bush-bash down to the stream and there they were, dense as ever, almost in the splash zone of the water.  Plenty of nice flowers.

Our next stop was Ruapekepeka redoubt. Ichthyostomum pygmaeum still clinging to the Puriri near the gate, and the same confusing Thelymitra in the open grass area, but no flowers open.  We stayed at Wellsford for the night.

Next morning, Wednesday we looked for orchids at Wilks Road, Dairy Flat and found Microtis parviflora and Thelymitra carnea flowering, plus other Thelymitra sp. in tight bud.  We called to see Eric and gave him a run-down on the trip.  

Next orchid stop was Rainbow Mountain, south of Rotorua.  On the track up to the summit we found a huge clump of Earina mucronata with literally thousands of flowers open, and a delicate sweet scent (not as over-powering as E. autumnalis).  Then we caught up with the little Petalochilus alata in flower, and a very large flowering plant of Chiloglottis cornuta growing through the carpets of moss.  There were also unusual ferns like Schizaea dichotoma and our native Nephrolepis.

The following day, Thursday, we spent some time around Ruapehu.  On the Chateau Road we walked to the Tawhai Falls.  Under the bank below the falls there were patches of Singularybas oblongus, their tiny compressed flowers just visible in the leaf.  Along the track there were several Thelymitra with tight flower buds.  

On the Whakapapanui Track Pterostylis patens had not yet showed itself and the only Caladenia we saw were last year's stalks.  

Now round to the west via National Park.  At Makatote there were lots of typical Nematoceras iridescens in flower and in amongst them just one Nematoceras papa or at least that was all we could identify, there may have been more leaves.  At "Archway Culvert" we photographed Nematoceras "whiskers" - fairly similar to N. rivulare at Mangamuka, differences may be due to habitat?  We also saw two species of Pterostylis, one upright growing and one more like P. humilis but flower-bud only just developing.

Our final orchid stop was Ohakune.  Near the DoC headquarters Pterostylis was up but no flowers. We walked up the track and spent some time searching the carpets of Nematoceras trilobum leaves before Brian found two small dark flowers.  Unfortunately they were past their best.  

Then further up the track we noticed the leaf shaped changed from small, deeply cut leaves to larger more rounded leaves, and these plants had reasonably plentiful flowers with a green dorsal lobe.  We also came across a round leafed species flowering below the leaf - maybe Nematoceras macranthum, but the whiskers were only short and it seemed a bit early in the season for this species.  Then we came across what we were really looking for - a large patch of Nematoceras acuminatum in full flower.

A great sight and a wonderful way to end our orchid odyssey.
 

I would like to thank Andrew Townsend for providing orchid names as recognised by DoC.
and Judith Tyler for typing and e-mailing the manuscript.