Flora Hut Walk and Lodestone Track, Kahurangi National Park
A pleasant drive through Motueka River West Bank Road leads steeply up the narrow gravelled, then concreted Graham Valley Road. A four wheel drive car is recommended and the road is likely to be closed due to slips or ice in winter.
At the top is the Flora carpark, within the extensive Kahurangi National Park. A pale blue information centre, wooden, lookout, long drop toilet and shelter mark the beginning of the Flora Hut Walk. From here a gentle family walk leads for 1-2 hours in two directions, or serious trampers can go bush for days or weeks. The area is popular with mountain bikers.
The track is well graded, wide enough for a vehicle. We only needed good walking shoes, warm clothes and a coat in a light pack.
The Flora Hut walk winds gently up to the Mt Arthur Hut then to Mt Arthur at 1795m. A picnic table and seats at view points stage the journey. We passed one stream at the start, so best to take your own water.
The track starts with tall silver beech
draped with lichen, the understory completely denuded by deer. Views of distant ridges fade from deep green to purple on the horizon. This is cast country, interwoven by hidden caves. We saw several dolines (tunnel shaped hollow), given away by the clouds of condensing warm air rising from the ground below us.
Limestone, formed from the shells of long extinct marine life, is colonised by rare plants.
We passed the Nelson Botanical Society, expressing delight the tiny flowering herbs. Soon the canopy lowers and the green and red tinged tufted orange bent arms of dracophyllum forest twist upwards. Underneath is leatherwood and whipcord herbes.
Past a short incline and rocky bluffs there are sweeping view down the valley. Noisy weka and their chicks scruffle in the leaf litter. Robins and bellbird sneak off. Riflemen come in for
a quick look if you whistle softly through your teeth. We saw several chicks, and an adult riflemen entered its nest hidden in a small hole of a beech tree. Overhead kakariki chattered.
We stopped after an hour or so at the Mt Arthur Hut for a bite and view, then headed back down the Lodestone Track via the Flora Stream to the Flora Hut. This is a proper tramping track and needs experience in poor weather.
We passed through low dracophyllum scrub, then into beech forest. Parks were steep and muddy, and the stream mostly hidden from view, but we saw, or mostly heard kaka.
We luckily met no one on the road back down, and followed the Motueka River until the first bridge and main road. Although the drive there and back was as long as the 2-3 hour walk, it was well worth the scenery.