New Zealand Trees

Over 80% of NZ forests are composed of natives.  The DOC wants to ensure the sustainability of the ecosystem by removing invaders and replanting with natives. That they are supported by the population pleases me. The US equivalents are suspected and distrusted. The Bureau of Land Management favors big ranchers over small ones. The Department of Agriculture is on the take. There is never enough money for parks. Outdoor education is a pipe dream. 

Aside: my and probably your Aunt Frances used to regale me and probably you with travel tales, including descriptions of the various toilets she’d visited. Let’s all raise a seat in memory of Aunt Frances, who pioneered family travel narratives!

I am amazed at how clean the NZ public toilets are, when a trip to the trailhead Plumpsklo (vault toilet) in the US takes more grit than climbing the mountain. Here I’m outing my spouse, who prefers to answer Nature’s call in Nature, while I brace myself for the vault toilet. 

I wanted to visit New Zealand, not for the clean public facilities, but for the irresistible botany. There is a difference between Nature and Horticulture and NZ blurs the distinction by naturalizing their gardens and weeding and hunting in their preserves. I have seen NZ native species that I have planted myself: Leptospermum, Pittosporum, Podocarpus, Sophora, Veronica (Hebe). I greet these trees and shrubs like cousins, happy to see them in their habitat. 

And I have met some amazing old trees: Banyan, Moreland Fig, Kauri.