Taieri River Gorge

Mar 03 - Joe and I took a hike to Dunedin's Silver Stream Water-Race tracks, just outside of town (67kb) A fantail, one of our favorite NZ birds (25kb) They follow you along on your hike, eating insects that you kick up (26kb) St Clair in the evening - looking over the flats of St Clair from the hills above our house, with the inner harbor in the background and the peninsula at the top right (25kb) Starting out on the Taieri River Gorge hike, about 30 minutes from our house (56kb)
It starts out along the sea and the salt flats, and then heads up river (17kb) I love the spiky trees - nothing like them in PA (42kb) It's a hike with varied ecosystems - here's a rain forest like bush through which we passed (49kb) Taking a break on one of the high bluffs, with the sea in the background (33kb) Looking up river toward Central Otago from the bluffs (41kb)
Looking down to where we'll eat lunch (87kb) Messing around at the river's edge at lunchtime (36kb) Heading back, Joe and I took the steep shortcut while Tam and Sara took the alternative route (67kb) Looking past Sara downriver to the sea, you can trace the path of the trail along the bluff's edge (18kb) Joe making his way over another set of terrific trail works (79kb)
The salt flats near the start - lots of herons and other birds stalking the crabs in the mud (27kb) The river's mouth at the sea (24kb) Our starting and ending point for the 11km hike (44kb) On the way home, we stopped along the shore - this is looking back up toward Dunedin (27kb)