We spent the long weekend at Papatowai in the Catlins. Labour weekend being the traditional start-of-summer, the weather was traditionally dreadful. Saturday was very wet indeed but cleared on Sunday for a stunner of a day on Monday.
I did no work at all. I took a PhD I’m reviewing, but I’m sorry Laura, it didn’t get out the bag. Instead we hunkered down in our new tent and walked on a lot of beach and bush. Yet again, geocaching took us to places we didn’t know were there.
The rain forest is showing an amazing amount of spring growth (slideshow). I tried and failed to capture the essence of the biodiversity – most images of complexity look like a jumble (perhaps appropriately). I was struck again by the intense competion for light and space (growth on log), and the rampant communities of epiphytes, climbers and scramblers (slideshow).
I had a strong feeling of déjà vu, wondering what tree was what, and the taxonomic bit of my botanical memory knowing lots about fruiting bodies but not much about bark (slideshow) (OK, I know this is Five Finger, the one below is Fushia, the hammer bark is Matai – or maybe Miro…).
Computing for Sustainability 
Posted on October 28, 2008
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