I have been asked to supply some photos of indigenous forest for a website and although I have many photos of bush species I needed some vistas for this project. I had found some on the North Shore but needed more and so headed to the Waitakere Ranges on Queens birthday Monday. My first stop was the Arataki visitor centre just beyond Titirangi to enjoy the wonderful view and get some advice from the duty rangers. They suggested the Waitakere dam area and so that was my next stop. It an easy walk down a service road to the dam. The views are stunning especially with the reflections on the absolutely still surface of the reservoir today.
However these were not quite the photos I was looking for. I walked back up the hill to the car park and then onto Cascade park which is a delightful area with some great walks through kauri, nikau and puriri forest. A tomtit came close and then a North Island robin virtually at my feet. It reminded me of a friend who just loves robins although her speciality is the rare black robin of the Chatham Isles.