Chatham Islands: Hiking in Forest
Chatham Island doesn’t have much forested areas remaining as most of the land was cleared for pastures and the soils are usually pour and the wind carrying salty sea water is quite destructive. But small pockets of the forests still remain and hiking in them is spectacular as most of the flora and bird life is endemic given the islands’ isolation from any nearby land. Giant tree ferns dominate the canopy in deeper valleys, while various subantarctic endemic tree species make up the forests at higher ground (with strange names like hoho, matipo, mahoe, karamu, kapu, and so on. Most of these trees – I’ve never seen before. It creates a weird mix of a subtropical and subantarctic, sort of out of place, it totally explainable by the Chathams’ location I’m the middle of nowhere.
